thread Empty categories no longer displayed even if they have sub categories in Orders, Menu Items, Catalog & Fulfilment

Empty categories no longer displayed even if they have sub categories

Rp3 — Sat, 20 Sep 2025 14:52:05 GMT

For a long time I had a category "Drinks" then sub categories for different kinds of drinks like "Beer", "N/A Beverages". The Drinks category is empty but the sub categories are populated. This used to work well and then after awhile of our drink sales disappearing I checked to make use everything was right on the online store and found that my drinks category vanished along with all its sub categories. Was there an update? is this no longer possible? It's disappointing to have lost out on those drinks sales without any indication of a change. We are depending on this platform now. It's fine if somethings need to change but it would have been really nice to have been informed on a change.

Re: Empty categories no longer displayed even if they have sub categories

Kassi_ — Tue, 20 Oct 2020 14:14:54 GMT

Hey there, @Rp3 -

Welcome back to the Community.

I completely understand how you utilized the "Sub-Category" option in your Item Library. It does look like that feature has been removed. I can recommend a couple of options that accomplish what you're looking for.

First - giving everything it's own category. I know it isn't ideal since it cannot be housed under a larger category, but it still gives you the organization.

Second - Look into Square for Restaurants. We have a free version that might give you the look and functionality you're looking for.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Re: Empty categories no longer displayed even if they have sub categories

hoodriver — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 01:49:34 GMT

I am having the exact same problem as @Rp3 , all of my sub-categories disappeared, even though they are shown on the back-end under categories.

Strangely, this change didn't happen until this week for us, not back in Oct. Either way, some notification would have been nice.

What's the solution, Square? Do we need to now make a category for every sub-category?

Re: Empty categories no longer displayed even if they have sub categories

hoodriver — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 02:04:43 GMT

I mean, do I have to delete the categories I have and start over to build each category? The category organization page still shows the main category with sub-categories...I tried adding a couple of things to the main category to see if I could revive something closer to our desired structure, but the page shows no items availbable: https://shop.hrdspirits.com/s/order/5?shipping=true

Re: Empty categories no longer displayed even if they have sub categories

hoodriver — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 02:44:07 GMT

I rebuilt with a main category, making sure to have items in it, then added the subcategories under it, but the site still shows nothing. Had to unpublish for now until figured out.