New to board, question

Hi Carol,

You’re definitely in the right place to ask these kinds of SharePoint architecture questions and what you’re running into is a very common issue with custom content types and site columns in SharePoint Online.

When you remove a site column from a content type at the site level, SharePoint does not automatically remove it from any lists or libraries where that content type was already added. Each list keeps its own local copy of the content type, including the columns.

Because of this, the content type still appears “in use,” and SharePoint will not allow you to delete it from the Content-Type Gallery.

SharePoint will not allow deletion of a content type from the Content Type Gallery until all list‑level references are removed.

To delete the content type, you must go to every list or library where it was used and remove the content type from there. Once all list‑level references are removed, SharePoint will allow you to delete it from the site.

• Go to every list or library where the content type was added
• Open List/Library Settings > Content Types
• Delete the content type
  
• Only after all references are removed will SharePoint allow you to delete it from the Content Type Gallery

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