Disable SharePoint List Attachments - Edit Form still showing 'Add attachments' field.

Question

Hello,

I have a modern SharePoint Online list in which I have disabled attachments using the 'List Settings > Advanced Settings > Attachments = Disabled' radio button.  This seems to work fine for the form when creating new list items i.e. when viewing the list and selecting 'new' from the top menu, the form that appears has no field for adding an attachment to the list item.  However, when editing an existing list item i.e. double clicking an item on the list, or selecting it then pressing 'edit' from the top menu, the form that appears still has the 'add attachments' field, though it fails when you try to upload a file, with the message "Encountering issue when uploading attachment 1.png: The list item was saved, but attachments could not be saved because the attachments feature is currently unavailable for this list" (which is good because it want it disabled).

I have also noticed that when I go back into the advanced list settings, the attachments setting is still disabled but there is a tick in the box 'Add attachments column to default view'.  I have tried unticking this option, but when I save and go back to this page, the box is ticked every time:

Question: How do I remove the attachments field from the edit form?

Answer 1

Hi Finnbee,

Thanks for the updates. Power apps form may take a few mins to take effect, so I would suggest you wait for a while. Additionally, please make sure you select Power Apps form as form for your list, you may go to List settings>Form settings to change this:

 

Additionally, please note the Form create from Power Apps may not work for the details panel, it works when you select New+ to create a new item, select a item and click “Edit”, and open detail panel and select “Edit all”. May I know does the power apps work if you select New+ or select “Edit”? Here is an example of test results on my side.

If the form works, you may turn off “Allow items in this list to be edited using Quick Edit and the Details Pane?” from List Setting > Advance Settings to reduce confusion when user try to edit an existing item.

Best Regards,

Clark

Answer 2

Hi Finnbee,

I go through the post carefully, there could be no settings in SharePoint to disable this, however you may customize the form with Power Apps and make the Attachment field invisible. Here are steps that may help:

1. Open the list, select Power Apps button on top ribbon, then select customize form.

 

1. At left navigation pane, select Attachments card, on the setting pane at right, Turn Off  Visible button

 

1. Then go to File>Save, click Save and select Publish to SharePoint. back to the list and refresh it, you should see the change in no time.

Hope these can help.

Regards,

Clark

Answer 3

Hi Clark,

Thank you for your quick and comprehensive response. I gave this a go, but when I went into Power Apps, the Attachments Card was not visible in the left navigation menu nor could I see the attachments field on the previous of the form (see screenshots below). I tried to publish the form to SharePoint to see if this would overwrite the existing form and perhaps correct the issue but the attachment field is still present :-/

Answer 4

Hi Clark, thank you again for your response. I can confirm that you were indeed correct and it just took a while for the updated form to take effect. The form does indeed no longer have the 'add attachments' field. However, I can't help but feel that this is a sub-optimal solution as the new form is different in nature to the original SharePoint default one, for example, the fields don't have representative icons, fonts are different, etc. Whilst I appreciate the form could be customised to mimic the SharePoint default view, this would be a lot of effort just to get around the issue of a field appearing which shouldn't be there. I also find having to disable the 'Allow item in the list to be edited using Quick Edit and the Details Pane' is an additional reduction in the experience.

Anyway, I am content that there is a solution, albeit not an ideal one and I thank you for your support.

Have a great day.

Regards,

Finn

Answer 5

Hi, 

I ran into this issue today and was able to solve it by using PowerShell and setting the attachments column to hidden. Here is the PowerShell:

Connect-PnPOnline https://[Tenant].sharepoint.com/sites/[SiteCollection] 

$list = Get-PnPList -Identity [ListName]

$field = Get-PnPField -List $list -Identity "Attachments"

$field.Hidden = $true

$field.Update()

$field.Context.ExecuteQuery()