On behalf of my colleague, you're most welcome, Julie. Thank you for responding in this thread.
 

I’m pleased to hear that the steps provided by my colleague, Kurt_M, has assisted you in addressing your issues regarding the auto-selection of inactive categories while processing a check in QuickBooks Online (QBO).
 
We appreciate your effort in letting us know about this. Please let me know if you have any QBO-related queries, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Have a great day ahead!