diff --git a/lisp/org.el b/lisp/org.el
index 7e30061f3..2fc6854c1 100644
--- a/lisp/org.el
+++ b/lisp/org.el
@@ -9474,7 +9474,7 @@ The refresh happens only for the current tree (not subtree)."
 	 (goto-char (point-min))
 	 (put-text-property (point) (point-max) 'org-category def-cat)
 	 (while (re-search-forward
-		 "^[ \t]*\\(#\\+CATEGORY:\\|[ \t]*:CATEGORY:\\)\\(.*\\)" nil t)
+		 "^[ \t]*\\(#\\+CATEGORY:\\|*:CATEGORY:\\)\\(.*\\)" nil t)
 	   (setq pos (match-end 0)
 		 optionp (equal (char-after (match-beginning 0)) ?#)
 		 cat (org-trim (match-string 2)))