In X3 I removed a bus fx & that also used clip automation on an audio track & now I have orphaned automation envelopes.
I can't use cut/ special automation as I have other automation envelopes as well so I used event list to find & delete them there.

Two questions-
Are there other easier ways to get rid of unwanted orphan automation besides the cut/special or event list editing?

In some cases when using event list & trying to delete a single node (pressing delete+data) the node doesn't delete but jumps a few ticks down the timeline.
Is that common or possibly related to something else I'm doing incorrectly?

The thing to do is delete the envelopes before you delete the plug. Hopefully you have a recently saved version you can go back to, delete the envelopes, then the plug. I couldn't grab the nodes to delete them once the plug was gone.

Shift+click the orphaned envelope to give it focus then right-click it and choose delete envelope.

Thanks, that does the trick.

I've always had this problem too! Just found this thread and the Shift+Click trick works. I never knew I could select automation that way -- I was always using automation lanes or digging through menus. Thank you so much Swamptooth!