Can't delete column, can't find conditional formatting rule that's preventing it

Suzanne Raphael

There was one conditional formatting rule that referenced the column in question. I deleted that rule, but still can't delete the column. Would be nice if SS would identify the any associated rules—am I missing something?

Andrée Starå

Hi,

Can you maybe share the sheet(s) or some screenshots? (Delete/replace any confidential/sensitive information before sharing) That would make it easier to help. (share too, andree@getdone.se)

I hope that helps!

Have a fantastic day!

Best,

Andrée Starå

Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

 

Suzanne Raphael

Hi Andrée, and thanks for responding. I can't at this point because I already cleared the offending condition by a process of elimination. This, however, is a pain...particularly when one has a lot of conditions. But the primary question remains: SS pops a modal message tell you you can't delete the column because it's used in a formula, offers you the option to edit the formula, but then pops the window with ALL the formulas without offering any guidance for which formula is causing the issue. Unless I'm missing something, this is kind of user-unfriendly :-(

Cheers,

Suzanne

Andrée Starå

Happy to help!

Great idea! That would be a great addition to Smartsheet features.

Please submit an Enhancement Request when you have a moment.

 

Suzanne Raphael

Done!

Andrée Starå

Excellent! 

Have a fantastic weekend!

Suzanne Raphael

This is still a problem, still no indication what formatting rule is blocking deletion. But today, I knew—and deleted them all (LOTS of them), and yet there are two columns left that refuse to be deleted, steadfastly claiming there is a formatting rule attached, but there IS NOT. Is there no way around this???

LelandSwift

@Suzanne Raphael I am having the same issue. I have triple checked all my conditional formatting and workflows and none involve any of the columns I want to delete. I think the idea that when a column can't be deleted due to being in a format rule, the edit format rules button should direct to the specific rules involved, instead of pulling up the whole menu. I can post pics of my format rules and sheet for reference.

DJG

@Suzanne Raphael I'm running into this same issue. Were you able to figure it out?

Jen H.

@Suzanne Raphael I am also having the same issue. Have a very complex sheet with 30 different conditional formatting rules and I have spent the past 2 hours looking for the offending rule attached to 3 columns I must delete and I am convinced it is not there. I agree with all of the these suggestions and hope Smartsheet folks can help! Thank you!

Andrée Starå

Hi @DJG @Jen H.

I hope you're well and safe!

I sometimes find that it can be a multiple-column rule that is easy to miss.

If you haven't already, try to make a copy of the sheet, delete rule by rule, and see if that helps find the issue.

Did that work/help?

I hope that helps!

Be safe, and have a fantastic week!

Best,

Andrée Starå | Workflow Consultant / CEO @ WORK BOLD

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Jen H.

@Andrée Starå That's a great suggestion - I might do that next time!

I was able to figure it out yesterday. Here's what I did; my approach won't work for every scenario.. This answer seems very obvious, but for some reason, I didn't think of it initially.

I highlighted the offending column and went row by row through my document looking to see if any conditional formatting was applied. The column was blue so any changes would stand out. I have about 700 rows, but after about 5 mins, found the cell, which stood out because the cell was red. I was able to remove the formatting and deleted the column.

I hope this is something in the works for improvement. Thanks again for the help, Andree!

Andrée Starå

@Jen H.

Excellent! Glad you got it working!

Happy to help!

hwat

I am struggling with this right now.

Attached are my screenshots. Trying to delete "SFR Contract Status:" column. It is NOT included in any of my conditional formatting - I've checked at least 10x now. Please help, this is so frustrating!!

Stephen Barry

I followed the suggestion above (duplicating the sheet and deleting one by one) and found that even though i thought I had checked multiple times I hadn't.

Suggest checking the lines where you have the 3 wee dots to the right hand side. I missed it.

SSFeatures

@Stephen Barry, @hwat, @Jen H.

Hey everyone, my name is Nathan and I've been working full-time building a browser extension ( https://ssfeatures.com ) that adds more features into Smartsheet.

I recently added a feature into the extension that solves this problem.

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 to remove the column from all of your conditional formats.

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

This will automatically remove the offending column from all of your rules, so that you don't have to do it manually.

I hope this helps!