How to Delete a Column in SharePoint Document Library/ List?

Published By Mohit Jha

Approved By Anuraag Singh

Published On December 6th, 2024

Reading Time 5 Minutes Reading

Category SharePoint Online

No doubt, SharePoint administrators perform several tasks to efficiently manage the SharePoint document library. These include resolving issues like SharePoint search not working, analyzing the SharePoint usage reports, and more. Among these responsibilities, keeping the SharePoint document library uncluttered is essential. To achieve this SharePoint administrators often need to remove unnecessary columns from lists or libraries. In this article, we will discuss how to delete a column in SharePoint document library or list. So, let’s get started.

Reasons to Remove a Column in SharePoint Document Library Permanently

There can be numerous reasons to delete the column from the SharePoint list or library. Some of the key reasons are as follows.

• A cluttered SharePoint document library affects the user’s productivity by filtering out the necessary columns from the list.
• SharePoint gets slowdown sometimes this is also because of the outdated content of the SharePoint library.
• If you are aware of how to check storage space in SharePoint Online, then you might also face storage issues because of unnecessary content.
• The customizations in SharePoint sites also get affected while creating views and enabling tree view in SharePoint Online.

How to Delete a Column in SharePoint Document Library in Classic Experience?

There are some quick steps to remove the outdated or irrelevant columns from SharePoint. If you are using the classic experience of SharePoint then execute the below steps sequentially.

1. After opening the SharePoint Admin Center with the right credentials.
2. Open the desired SharePoint list or library whose column is no longer required.
3. Open the settings of the SharePoint document library or list.
4. Move to the column section and hit the outdated column title.
5. Lastly, click on the Delete button to delete a column from SharePoint document library or list.

How to Delete a Column in SharePoint List with Modern Experience?

In the modern SharePoint experience, you need to perform the below steps to delete the unnecessary column from the SharePoint document library.

1. Launch the SharePoint application.
2. Navigate to the SharePoint document library or list whose column is outdated.
3. Click on the column’s header.
4. Now, choose the Column settings option then Edit from the newly opened panel.
5. You can see the Delete button after scrolling to the end, press it and you have successfully deleted the outdated column from the SharePoint document library.

How to Delete a Column in SharePoint Document Library Using PowerShell?

PowerShell commands can also used to remove the unnecessary column from the SharePoint list. But use this method if you have already used PowerShell commands earlier or are well versed in it. You should also update SharePoint Online management shell if not having the current version of PowerShell. It will help you to resolve upcoming errors such as Connect-SPOService : Could not connect to SharePoint Online.

Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"

$URLofSharePointSite=""
$NameofList= "Employee_Details"
$Column_Name="Employee LastName"

Try {
$Cred = Get-Credential
$Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.Username, $Cred.Password)

$Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($URLofSharePointSite)
$Ctx.Credentials = $Credentials

$List = $Ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle($NameofList)

$Select_Outdated_Column = $List.Fields.GetByTitle($Column_Name)

$Select_Outdated_Column.DeleteObject()
$Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

Write-host "Unnecessary column is removed from SharePoint document library”
}
Catch {
write-host -f Red "Error occurred, deletion failed”
}

How to Delete Site Columns in SharePoint?

Site columns help to identify the information quickly. These columns are not created individually for the lists or libraries. These are shared columns, they can also be deleted if no longer required.

1. Open the Settings from SharePoint Admin Center.
2. Now, go to Site Information and view all settings.
3. Choose the Site columns from the Web Designer Galleries.
4. Scroll down to the site column that is no longer required.
5. Hit the Delete option and the column gets deleted permanently.

Considerations While Deleting a Column in SharePoint Document Library

Although the process of deleting a column in a SharePoint list or library seems simple. But there are some key points to consider before proceeding. Make sure the column is no longer required and does not contain critical information.

Once the SharePoint site, library, or list column is deleted then it cannot be recovered. To avoid data loss, it is recommended to migrate SharePoint list to another site before deleting its columns.

You can easily accomplish this by using the Most Prominent SharePoint to SharePoint Migration Tool, which is trusted by MVPs for creating backups of essential data.

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Concluded Words

Leveraging the SharePoint enormous features it is required to keep your SharePoint document library unclutter. Therefore, in this comprehensive write-up, we have elaborated on different methods to remove a column from the SharePoint document library or list. Now you can choose any of the methods which suit you the best. Hence the query of how to delete a column in SharePoint document library has been resolved.