In Sharepoint lists, why am I forced to choose from a list of business names when I only want the city and state?

Question

The location column is set to fields for city and state, but I am rarely able to choose the city and state from the dropdown menu. It only shows business addresses. I have repeatedly tried deleting the column and re-adding it, refreshing, inputting data from different browsers, and inputting data from a PC and a Mac. I have tried writing out the entire fields (ex. Raleigh, North Carolina, United States), pausing after each letter to let the selection update. It's truly thrilling on the rare occasion that this basic function works the way it's supposed to.

This question was posted and not answered four years ago:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5177614/location-column-in-lists-does-not-display-communit

Answer 1

Dear @JF,
Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum. I understand you are using the Location column in your SharePoint list and you only want to pick City and State, but the dropdown mostly shows business addresses instead of simple city/state options. You have also tried multiple browsers, devices, and recreating the column, but the behavior stays the same.

The SharePoint Location column is powered by Bing Maps data, which returns real‑world places. This includes businesses, landmarks, buildings, and full street addresses—not just cities or states. Because of this design, the dropdown often prioritizes business listings before showing city‑level results. even if you only enable City and State, the suggestions will still come from Bing Maps’ places database.

There are some workarounds I suggest:

Option 1: Use simple “City” and “State” text/choice columns

If you don’t need map data, this is the most reliable solution.

• Create a City column (Text or Choice)
• Create a State column (Text or Choice)

This avoids Bing Maps entirely, so you won’t see business listings.

Option 2: Use a custom lookup list (best for clean data)

Create a separate list containing approved City + State values

Add a Lookup column pointing to that list > Gives a clean, controlled dropdown without business results.

Option 3: Keep the Location column but hide extra details

This doesn’t change the suggestions, but you can use formatting to display only City/State in the list view to make the data appear cleaner.

Option 4: Customize the form using Power Apps

Replace the Location control entirely with your own City/State dropdowns for full control.

Moreover, I want you to know that Microsoft deeply values customer experience and feedback. Every single comment matter, and the product teams actively review what customers share to guide decisions and improvements. Your voice is powerful here, and I encourage you to make it heard through the official feedback channels. Therefore, to ensure your feedback reaches the right teams, I highly recommend submitting your feedback directly to Microsoft Ideas · Community, where our product development team can know your requirements and ideas for product improvements. If enough users raise ticket for the same idea, Microsoft may consider adding this feature in the future.

Note: As Microsoft Community moderators, please note that we are not involved in product design decisions and do not have direct access to the development roadmap, we want to assure you that your feedback has been acknowledged and is valued.

However, you can rest assured that you are not alone, I’ll continue to monitor this case and will reach out to you with any new updates as soon as possible. If any updates or announcements are made regarding this feature, I will make sure to share them with you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your cooperation.

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