diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 01767eb..0bc335e 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -27,6 +27,11 @@ The long form, with what was wrong before and how it was found, is in
 
 ### Fixed
 
+- The feeds left behind by an OPML subscription removed before ipx retired them are cleared at
+  startup: forgotten if nothing was downloaded, kept as orphaned if something was. Feeds from it
+  that have since been given their own settings stay as they are, with their items. Removing an
+  OPML or Patreon subscription no longer deletes the items of a feed inside it that has its own
+  settings.
 - Titles that arrive as HTML, such as The Verge's, no longer show their entities as text:
   "Meta’s" reads "Meta’s". Titles already stored are corrected the next time their feed
   changes.
diff --git a/docs/history.md b/docs/history.md
index d877e32..8b16844 100644
--- a/docs/history.md
+++ b/docs/history.md
@@ -6,6 +6,26 @@ reasoning lives. New write-ups go at the top.
 
 See [README.md](../README.md) for what the thing is.
 
+## 2026-09-15 — davewiner's 922 rows, retired at last
+
+davewiner's OPML subscription left config.toml before `retire_group` existed, so nothing ever
+retired the 922 feeds derived from it. The backstop in `subscriptions()` kept them from being
+scanned, but the rows stayed, and 56 of the 75 errors stored in production were theirs: stale, and
+never going to change.
+
+Retiring them the obvious way would have done damage. Eleven of the 922 -- xkcd, The Verge,
+TechCrunch, Hacker News and others -- had since been given config entries of their own and were
+scanned from there, but their rows still said `managed = 1`. `managed_feeds()` returned them, so
+`retire_group("davewiner")` would have dropped the ten with no files as derived feeds, deleting
+the entries people were reading. `unmanage` exists for exactly this and had never been applied.
+
+`retire_group` now unmanages a feed that has its own config entry instead of dropping it, which
+also covers removing any OPML or Patreon subscription from the page, and the daemon retires every
+group whose parent is gone from config when it starts. In production that is davewiner alone: 792
+rows with nothing downloaded forgotten, 119 with files kept as orphaned, 11 unmanaged. One of the
+792, `ars-technica-all-content-2`, has a subscriber but neither a config entry nor a file; the
+backstop had already hidden it, so nobody could see it to lose it.
+
 ## 2026-09-14 — Settings, for everyone with an account
 
 A user reported that Settings disappeared shortly after they signed in: it showed for a moment,
diff --git a/src/main.rs b/src/main.rs
index 58274b5..74c036d 100644
--- a/src/main.rs
+++ b/src/main.rs
@@ -392,6 +392,12 @@ async fn daemon(
         Err(e) => tracing::warn!(error = ?e, "could not requeue interrupted downloads"),
     }
 
+    match retire_stranded(&ctx) {
+        Ok(0) => {}
+        Ok(n) => tracing::info!(feeds = n, "retired feeds whose OPML is no longer in config"),
+        Err(e) => tracing::warn!(error = ?e, "could not retire feeds whose OPML is no longer in config"),
+    }
+
     let (tx_cmd, mut rx_cmd) = mpsc::channel::<Cmd>(64);
 
     let web = start_web(&ctx, &config_path, web_addr, &tx_cmd, &events).await?;
@@ -962,10 +968,16 @@ pub fn subscriptions(ctx: &Ctx) -> Result<Vec<Sub>> {
 /// Patreon feed that listed them: the same rule `sync_group` applies to one the list drops --
 /// removed if nothing was downloaded, orphaned and kept otherwise. Called once the parent
 /// itself is removed, since `subscriptions()` would otherwise keep scanning them under a
-/// fallback policy meant for a feed with no parent at all.
+/// fallback policy meant for a feed with no parent at all. A feed promoted to config is not
+/// derived any more, so it is only unmanaged.
 pub fn retire_group(ctx: &Ctx, parent_id: &str) -> Result<()> {
+    let cfg = ctx.cfg();
     for m in ctx.db.managed_feeds()?.into_iter().filter(|m| m.group_id == parent_id) {
-        if ctx.db.downloaded_count(&m.id).unwrap_or(1) > 0 {
+        if cfg.feeds.contains_key(&m.id) {
+            // Scanned from its config entry and still read. Dropped as derived, its stored
+            // entries would go with it: davewiner's 11 were promoted without being unmanaged.
+            ctx.db.unmanage(&m.id)?;
+        } else if ctx.db.downloaded_count(&m.id).unwrap_or(1) > 0 {
             ctx.db.set_orphaned(&m.id, true)?;
         } else {
             ctx.db.drop_managed(&m.id)?;
@@ -974,6 +986,24 @@ pub fn retire_group(ctx: &Ctx, parent_id: &str) -> Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
+/// Retires every group whose parent is gone from config, and returns how many derived rows that
+/// dropped or unmanaged. An OPML removed before `retire_group` existed left its feeds behind:
+/// davewiner's 922 were skipped by every scan and never cleared, and their stale errors were
+/// most of the ones stored.
+fn retire_stranded(ctx: &Ctx) -> Result<usize> {
+    let cfg = ctx.cfg();
+    let before = ctx.db.managed_feeds()?;
+    let stranded: std::collections::BTreeSet<&str> = before
+        .iter()
+        .map(|m| m.group_id.as_str())
+        .filter(|g| !cfg.feeds.contains_key(*g))
+        .collect();
+    for group in stranded {
+        retire_group(ctx, group)?;
+    }
+    Ok(before.len() - ctx.db.managed_feeds()?.len())
+}
+
 /// Seconds to wait before re-checking a feed.
 ///
 /// A per-feed schedule is an explicit instruction and wins outright. Without one, the
@@ -1713,4 +1743,24 @@ mod tests {
         assert!(managed.iter().any(|m| m.id == "has-file"), "has a file on disk, so it is kept");
         assert!(ctx.db.feed_summary("has-file").unwrap().orphaned, "and flagged as orphaned");
     }
+
+    #[test]
+    fn a_stranded_group_is_retired_but_a_promoted_feed_keeps_its_entries() {
+        // davewiner: the OPML left config before retire_group existed, and 11 of its feeds
+        // promoted to config since still said managed = 1.
+        let mut cfg = config::Config::default();
+        cfg.feeds.insert("promoted".into(), feed());
+        cfg.feeds.insert("live-opml".into(), feed());
+        let ctx = test_ctx(cfg);
+        ctx.db.upsert_managed("promoted", "http://x/p.xml", "Promoted", "gone-opml").unwrap();
+        ctx.db.upsert_managed("empty", "http://x/e.xml", "Empty", "gone-opml").unwrap();
+        ctx.db.upsert_managed("listed", "http://x/l.xml", "Listed", "live-opml").unwrap();
+        ctx.db.record_entry("promoted", &feed::Entry { guid: "g1".into(), ..Default::default() }).unwrap();
+
+        assert_eq!(retire_stranded(&ctx).unwrap(), 2, "empty dropped, promoted unmanaged");
+
+        let managed: Vec<String> = ctx.db.managed_feeds().unwrap().into_iter().map(|m| m.id).collect();
+        assert_eq!(managed, ["listed"], "a group still in config is left alone");
+        assert_eq!(ctx.db.feed_summary("promoted").unwrap().entries, 1, "its entries survive");
+    }
 }