SharePoint Lookup Column isn't Populating

Question

I have a SharePoint list (volunteer record) that is populated monthly by importing data from excel. It has information such as contact information, trainings taken, certifications, etc.

I have a second SharePoint list (volunteer availability) that has the status of each volunteer. The volunteer availability list has many lookup columns that associates a volunteers record to their availability.

I have data populated in both lists and the lookup columns in the volunteer availability list are all working.

I've attempted to create a new column in the volunteer record list, populate it with data, and then create a lookup column in the volunteer availability list. I would like the new column of data to be associated with each volunteer.

Here are the steps I took:

A new column was added to the volunteer record list called certified. The new column had two options for entries (partial, complete, or null). I then created the lookup column in the volunteer availability. When I initially created the lookup I accidentally pointing it to the wrong column.

I corrected the issue by revising the certified column in the volunteer record list from choice to string of text. This allowed the certified column to show up as an option for the lookup in the second list. I revised the lookup to point to the certified column.

The certified lookup column has not populated any data from the volunteer record list. I've verified there is data in the certified column of the volunteer record list. I cannot figure out why the lookup is not populating automatically.

I tried starting over since the initially created lookup was pointing to the wrong column. Starting over with a new lookup also did not work.

I'm hoping to get an answer as to what I'm doing wrong in my steps. All the other lookup columns have worked without any issue and have populated automatically.

Thanks for any assistance you can provide.

Answer 1

Hi @BPIT , thank you for posting in the Q&A forum. I would like to confirm a few things with you:

1. How is the volunteer record list populated monthly, are you using a flow or other method?
2. How do you update the lookup columns automatically for other columns in the volunteer availability list? Are you using workflow/flow to update the lookup columns, or are you referring to the additional fields of the lookup column?

As far as I know, when you create a lookup column, it does not auto-populate itself unless you use other tools to give values to it.
Or if you are using additional fields for lookup columns, they will automatically fill the corresponding fields with the values from the source list. The additional fields show as Read-Only in the target list.

Please see the reference here: Create list relationships by using unique and lookup columns.

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