Cannot delete columns

Jason P

I run a Non Dynamic View sheet and have two checkbox columns that I cannot delete. Sheet states they are used in one or more format rules. Having checked all 14 formats they are not - nor are they part of any automation, form, cross sheet link, project setting or primary column.....

Here's the kick.

Cell history says those that were checked were done so by Form User. While they were part of a previous form that form was made inactive in May, most recent check box was Oct 13th. The new form does not reference these columns. copy/paste the old form link & as expected - Sheet is inactive, have since deleted.

I've deleted all checks and saved the sheet then renamed the columns & changed their function to Text/Number and saved again. 4 rows lit up with false? - there is no formula in the columns or cross sheet links and of these rows there was no commonality that would explain false.

I tried to delete the now renamed and blank columns and again sheet says Used in conditional formatting...

I'm at a complete loss - Yes I can hide the columns but in the past few days I have done this to 5 other columns not in use and they keep unhiding - and not by users (question for another time)

I'm at a complete loss on how to delete these two columns - Anyone else same issue or can throw me a bone?

Regards

Paul Newcome

Can you provide screenshots of the column names and all of your conditional formatting rules?

Jason P

Thanks Paul,

I renamed columns Trash 1 & 2

Paul Newcome

All of the ones that have the ... at the end... Did you check those to see if the conditional formatting was being applied to the columns you are trying to delete?

Jason P

Hi Paul.

Resolved the issue, there was one where these column were in a condition - should have known the sheet was smart... appologies for taking you time.

Regards

Paul Newcome

Happy to help. 👍️

SSFeatures

If anybody ever runs into this issue again in the future, I recently built a solution for this into the SSFeatures browser extension ( https://ssfeatures.com )

If you have SSFeatures installed and you try to delete a column that is used by a conditional format, you'll see a big "Fix with SSFeatures" button. You can click this button and SSFeatures will automatically remove the column from all of your conditional formats.

Alternatively, you can access this feature from the SSFeatures menu.

SSFeatures will edit the conditional formats automatically for you, so that you don't have to manually go through them one by one.

I hope this helps someone in the future!