How can I delete list columns that I cannot find in the settings?

Question

I am a user with full control of a Sharepoint site, yet I am having difficulty deleting certain columns from lists. I have a list that had the template migrated from another Sharepoint list. I confirmed that some of the lists in the new site have columns that were used in the old site, but are no longer being used, and would like to delete them. Strangely, I cannot find the option to delete any of these columns.

This is a screenshot of the view settings with columns I would like to delete: 

But I cannot find any of these columns in the list settings. Here are the list columns for the same list: 

It's possible the Rentention label is a Sharepoint default column and shouldn't be deleted, but I know for sure that AnnualNotice_Email and ItemPermissions AnnualNotice are Sharepoint workflows that are running in the original list (just not sure why they are duplicated). I've checked in the list workflow settings, but the workflows do not exist:

I'm trying to delete these columns but with no success. Am I missing an area during my search?

Answer 1

Hi CaitlynSun*,*

From the image you shared, the AnnualNotice_Email column was set to displayed in the list, can you edit the column settings in the list view?

To support you better, is there any chance you can share a template of the template with us for investigation? You can download the template according to this article: Manage list templates

To share the file with us, you can upload the template to a cloud drive and share a link with us via Private Message.

Regards,

Alex

Answer 2

Hi Caitlyn,

Haven't heard from you for a while. Welcome to reply at your convenience and we will keep assisting.

Regards,

Alex

Answer 3

Hi Alex, sorry I did not see your message until just now. Thank you so much for responding. For some reason the list is not allowing me to switch to modern view, so I am not able to go into column settings. I will send a template through private message.

Answer 4

Turns out that I am not able to send private messages for some odd reason. I exported the template without any data to this link. The Columns Not Used view has the columns I am trying to delete, but most of them (I can delete the Potential Delete ones without an issue) cannot be found in the list settings.

Answer 5

Hi Caitlyn,

Thanks for sharing. I tested the template in my test tenant and have the same behavior. I tried from my side and I cannot find any entry to edit those columns. Some of them are default columns and they cannot be edited, but the column you mentioned like AnualNotice_Email is not included in the default ones. I think we will need to trace back to the list where the template was first created.

I made a new view to make it show in modern view and it is not allowed to edit the column, no Edit button in column settings, same as the default columns in SharePoint list.

Except for that, there seem to be issues with the default view(AllItems). I get errors to open it under both modern experience and classic experience. While other views in the template seem to work fine under both experience so we can work around this by setting another view as default, but if it's acceptable, you may consider recreating the list. It will take some time according to the columns you want but you will have a new list without these issues and save a new template for future use.

Regards,

Alex