Code snippet that can be used to change values for previous content nodes in drupal 8 when you add custom fields to your content type.
/**
* run cron
*/
function mymodule_cron(){
$nids = \Drupal::entityQuery('node')
->condition('type', 'article', '=')
->execute();
$nodes = \Drupal::entityTypeManager()->getStorage('node')->loadMultiple($nids);
foreach ($nodes as $node) {
$node->set('field_category', ['target_id' => 66]);
$node->set('field_sub_category', ['target_id' => 69]);
$node->set('field_image', ['target_id' => 1]);
$node->save();
}
}
Don't forget to comment this code after you run cron.