Disabled query returns stale cached data marked as “fresh”

[aak-lear]

Describe the bug

When a query is disabled (i.e. enabled: false), TanStack Query still serves previously cached data and labels it as “fresh".

Your minimal, reproducible example

https://codesandbox.io/p/devbox/loving-perlman-jw78wf?workspaceId=ws_QheumUjeu5qT8HgBCqBQ98

Steps to reproduce

1. Open the demo via the provided link:
2. Click Mount → see “Query Data: No data”.
3. Click Enable Query → see “Query Data: {current timestamp}”.
4. Verify in DevTools → query is in stale state.
5. Click Unmount, then Mount again (query will disabled again).
6. Observe “Query Data: {old timestamp}”.
7. In DevTools → Status: disabled, Data status: fresh.

Expected behavior

With enabled: false, the component should either:

• Render no data (undefined/null)
  or
• If cached data persists, it should be marked as stale, not fresh.
  In DevTools, a disabled query with outdated cache should show Status: disabled and Data status: stale.

How often does this bug happen?

Every time

Screenshots or Videos

No response

Platform

• OS: all
• Browser: all

Tanstack Query adapter

None

TanStack Query version

5.76.1

TypeScript version

No response

Additional context

No response

[TkDodo]

I think the behaviour we have right now is correct.

With enabled: false, the component should either:

Render no data (undefined/null)

That’s not how enabled works. A “disabled observer” is still observing the cache entry, so it will receive updates. If you call queryClient.setQueryData, or get data into the cache by some other means, this component will still show the up-to-date data. If you don’t want that, you can set subscribed: false.

If cached data persists, it should be marked as stale, not fresh.

If you have active observers, staleness depends on how the observer sees the data. When a query is marked as stale in the devtools, it means it will be refetched automatically when a trigger occurs, e.g. a window focus.
In your case, a refetch won’t happen though, because you have no enabled observers. That’s why “stale” would be the wrong indicator. Put another way, a disabled observer’s staleTime is not taken into account. That’s why we also have the extra disabled label on that cache entry when all observers are disabled.