Delete Button Missing in SharePoint Column? Here is How to Delete it!

How to delete a Column from SharePoint List when Delete Button is missing?

Unable to delete list column in SharePoint since there is no delete button in field properties? In some cases, columns added through “Add existing columns” don’t provide the option to delete! To make them deletable, revert these two properties: AllowDeletion & Sealed.

Delete a column from SharePoint List using PowerShell

Here is how to delete the SharePoint list column programmatically with PowerShell: 

#Get the Web
$web = Get-SPWeb "https://sharepoint.crescent.com/sites/pmo"

#Get the List
$list = $web.Lists["Design Documents"]

#Get the column
$column = $list.Fields["Category"]

#Disable Delete
$column.AllowDeletion = $true
$column.Sealed = $false
$column.Update()

#delete a SharePoint list column in PowerShell
$column.Delete() 

$web.Dispose() 

We can also make fields Sealed So that nobody can change the field settings.

SharePoint Manager tool can be used to set these properties. Navigate to the site, list, or library and set the “AllowDeletion” property to false, save the changes. This hides the delete option in the SharePoint list.

Here is another post to make a non-deletable column: How to Prevent SharePoint List or Columns from Deletion?