SharePoint Lists - Freezing First Column

Question

In some of my SharePoint Lists, the first column is frozen so that it remains on screen as you slide to the right. However, in others, it is not frozen. This is true both in and out of Grid Mode. It seems completely random whether the list has the first column frozen. Is there any way to control this in settings? Or does anyone know if I am doing something on some of these lists that is causing the first column to unfreeze? Thank you!

Answer 1

Hi @JHSimmonsAOD ,  

Welcome to the Microsoft Q&A forum. 

Thank you for reaching out. I understand the inconsistency regarding the first column visibility across different lists can be confusing. 

To better understand the cause of this behavior, could you please compare a list where the first column is "sticky" with one where it is not, and let me know the following: 

• Are both lists using the Modern experience, or does one appear to be in the Classic layout? 
• Does this occur within the same browser (e.g., Edge or Chrome) and under the same conditions (Normal vs. InPrivate/Incognito)? 
• Are both lists hosted on the same SharePoint site or within different tenants? Feature rollouts can vary by site. 
• Are you using the same view type (such as All Items) for both, and is the command bar at the top identical in both instances? 

Based on your information, I would like to share with your that in the modern SharePoint and Microsoft Lists experience, the current platform behavior dictates that only the far-left column remains fixed during horizontal scrolling. There is currently no native setting to freeze multiple columns or to manually toggle this feature on or off for individual lists. 

If you require a specific field to remain visible during scrolling, please ensure it is positioned as the left-most column in your view, as the fixed behavior applies exclusively to the first column. 

If possible, please provide a screenshot of the command bar and the grid area (ensuring any sensitive information is redacted). This will help confirm if the lists are operating under different feature states or experiences. 

I look forward to your update. 

---

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Answer 2

SharePoint list views do not provide any setting to freeze or unfreeze the first column. Column behavior in modern lists is limited to:

• Showing or hiding columns in a view
• Changing the order of columns in a view

To control how columns appear:

1. Open the list.
2. Select View options and choose the view (for example, All Documents or another view).
3. On any column heading, select the down arrow, then Column settings > Show/hide columns.
4. Use drag and drop or the Up/Down arrows to change the order of columns, then select Apply.
5. If needed, save the view with View options > Save view as.

This lets a column appear first, but there is no documented way in SharePoint list settings to explicitly freeze that column the way Excel or other grid controls do. Any apparent freezing behavior differences between lists are not configurable through standard list or view settings.

---

References:

• Edit a list column