diff --git a/docs/release-notes/2062.bugfix.md b/docs/release-notes/2062.bugfix.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..d72a295b5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/docs/release-notes/2062.bugfix.md
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Allow reading of non-string index in {func}`anndata.experimental.read_lazy` and {func}`anndata.experimental.read_elem_lazy` for {class}`anndata.experimental.backed.Dataset2D` {user}`ilan-gold`
diff --git a/src/anndata/_io/specs/lazy_methods.py b/src/anndata/_io/specs/lazy_methods.py
index b6ad2e591..bc51ee004 100644
--- a/src/anndata/_io/specs/lazy_methods.py
+++ b/src/anndata/_io/specs/lazy_methods.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+import warnings
 from contextlib import contextmanager
 from functools import partial, singledispatch
 from pathlib import Path
@@ -304,7 +305,17 @@ def read_dataframe(
     if not use_range_index:
         dim_name = elem.attrs["_index"]
         # no sense in reading this in multiple times
-        index = elem_dict[dim_name].compute()
+        if isinstance(elem_dict[dim_name], DaskArray):
+            index = elem_dict[dim_name].compute()
+        else:
+            import xarray
+
+            index = elem_dict[dim_name][
+                xarray.core.indexing.BasicIndexer((slice(None),))
+            ].array
+            msg = f"Found non-string indices {index} in on-disk {elem} store"
+            warnings.warn(msg, stacklevel=2)
+        index = pd.Index(index)
     else:
         dim_name = DUMMY_RANGE_INDEX_KEY
         index = pd.RangeIndex(len(elem_dict[elem.attrs["_index"]])).astype("str")
diff --git a/tests/lazy/test_read.py b/tests/lazy/test_read.py
index 9624668d6..81d8c9780 100644
--- a/tests/lazy/test_read.py
+++ b/tests/lazy/test_read.py
@@ -211,3 +211,15 @@ def test_chunks_df(
     for k in ds:
         if isinstance(arr := ds[k].data, DaskArray):
             assert arr.chunksize == expected_chunks
+
+
+@pytest.mark.zarr_io
+def test_categorical_idx(tmp_path: Path):
+    adata = AnnData(shape=[10, 20])
+    adata.obs.index = adata.obs.index.astype("category")
+    orig_pth = tmp_path / "categorical_id.zarr"
+    adata.write_zarr(orig_pth)
+    with pytest.warns(UserWarning, match=r"non-string indices"):
+        remote = read_lazy(orig_pth)
+    remote_to_memory = remote.to_memory()
+    assert_equal(adata, remote_to_memory)