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The "Unknown" system category

Safety net for uncategorised rows. Cannot be renamed, deleted or capped.

Last updated: 2026-05-242 min read

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The "Unknown" category in Extrack is a system-owned bucket that holds every transaction you saved without picking a category, plus any rows orphaned when their original category was deleted. It is protected — instead of Edit / Delete actions on its row, it shows a "System" badge. Server-side validation rejects any attempt to set a budget cap on it.

How rows land here

Three ways a transaction lands in Unknown:

  • You saved a transaction without picking a category.
  • You deleted the category it used to be tagged with.
  • You restored a backup where the original category was not preserved.

Frequently asked

Why can I not set a budget cap on Unknown?

A cap on "stuff I have not classified yet" would not be actionable. Re-categorise the rows; do not cap the bucket.

How do I clear Unknown?

Open the category, see the rows, edit each one (or open them from Transactions) and add a real category.

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