so it is fixed now ?

Not sure I understand your problem.
As a superuser, I create an article and select a category for this article (I do not save it yet).
Then I move to another Tab (to set the language if I need it for example).
Then come back to the Category field and select another category in the dropdown.
No issue at all here.

maybe your issue is due to your template?

Tested with an Manager account. I can NOT reproduce this issue, too. I can change the category as often as I want.

Maybe you have set additional settings due to category in the menu item "Submit an Article".

Set to "closed" on behalf of @franz-wohlkoenig by The JTracker Application at issues.joomla.org/joomla-cms/23991

closed as unconfirmed Report, it can always reopened.

@infograf768 you understand problem corectly. Just log in frontend. Tested with an author account from frontend the issue still is. Using default joomla protostar template.

Please reopen this issue

I've tested it again with an Author account and still can't reproduce the issue. Author can change the category without any issues.

If the Author saves the article and then opens edit again (after an admin has published it), yes, then the Author cannot select another category from the dropdown but can create a new category (which sounds wrong to me, not only because the redirection after Save leads on a 404 page).

Is it that what you're talking about?

Please provide always a detailled step-by-step instruction. It makes it so much easier to understand issues.

@ReLater yes this is what I am talking about.

Author cannot select another category from the dropdown but can create a new category

And also as @infograf768 described it but just as author.

Could you then please update your "Steps to reproduce the issue" for others. You forgot to mention the "Save" and "Edit again" steps.

Steps to reproduce the issue

• Install Joomla3 with testing sample data (See also comment #23991 (comment))
• Create an user with group Author
• Log into front-end with this account
• Click on menu item Submit new article
• Create an article, select a category. All categories are selectable in category selection field.
• Save the article
• Publish the article in back-end
• Open the article in front-end as Author and select Edit
• Try to change the category. Not possible! Only the saved category is shown in category selection.
• Enter a new category name into the search bar of the category selection and press Enter.

Issue 1:

A new category is created. It's strange that I can not select an existing category but can create a new one.

Issue 2:

Also strange: Save the article and you will be redirected to a 404 error page because the form uses the old category in return path (see #23991 (comment)).

Addition: I've tested with SEF, Use URL Rewriting, Modern URL Routing, and Remove IDs from URLs.
I don't know if that's relevant here.

Edit: Yes, that's relevant for Issue 2 because the new category is created in first level of article categories. Modern Routing needs a menu item where the new category is included. Thus the article lands always on a 404 as long as there's no matching menu item.

@ReLater Yes tested with SEF, Use URL Rewriting, Modern URL Routing, and Remove IDs from URLs

@franz-wohlkoenig
Could you please reopen the issue because we need at least clarifying statements for issues I described in comments #23991 (comment) and #23991 (comment)
Thank you!

Set to "open" on behalf of @Quy by The JTracker Application at issues.joomla.org/joomla-cms/23991

confirmed that this issue still not fixed and also exists in joomla 3.9.4

@HLeithner can you please comment?

imho, as the article has been approved and already published, changing its category could create issues. It would need re-approving.

When an article has been approved you can edit the content without any more approval. So restricting a category change for that reason is not logical

The restriction makes maybe sense, at least in a strange way. If it's this way we can't change it in 3.9 but we should fix the "create" category bug. The category should not be a dropdown if its readonly, which it is in this case.

I will prepare a patch for that (it has still to look like a dropdown but readonly as we do when article is associated)

Please test
#24216