Issue Excluding Entries with Multiple Categories in Query

Question

I've reference this related thread but haven't found a working solution that supports pagination and will exclude entries that have multiple categories.

The code example will not include Category One, but when an entry has Category One and Category Two it will still display because Category Two is included in the cateogries array. Is there a way to still exclude the entry even if it's second category is included?

  {# Get all the categories you want to INCLUDE #}
  {% set categories = craft.categories({
      group: 'categories',
      slug: [
        'not category-one',
      ],
      limit: null,
    }).all() %}

  {# Get entries related to your desired categories #}
  {% set latestNews = craft.entries({
      section: 'news',
      relatedTo: categories,
      with: ([
        ['image', {
          withTransforms: ['medium']
        }]
      ]),
      orderBy: 'postDate desc',
      limit: 4
    }).all() %}

Answer 1

Start by getting the category ID(s) you want to exclude:

{% set categoryIds = craft.categories()
    .group('categories')
    .slug('category-one')
    .ids() %}

Then get all the entry IDs that are related to them, which should be excluded:

{% set excludeIds = craft.entries()
    .relatedTo({
        targetElement: categoryIds
    })
    .ids() %}

Then run your main news query, excluding those entry IDs.

{% set latestNews = craft.entries()
    .section('news')
    .id(['not']|merge(excludeIds))
    .with([
        ['image', {
            withTransforms: ['medium']
        }]
    ])
    .orderBy('postDate desc')
    .limit(4)
    .all() %}