Learn MOAR in Summer ’22 with Picklist Field Value Enhancements ✔️

Follow and complete a Learn MOAR Summer ’22 trailmix for admins or developers by July 31, 2022, 11:59 pm PT to earn a special community badge and be automatically entered for a chance to win one of five $200 USD Salesforce Certification vouchers. Restrictions apply. Learn how to participate and review the Official Rules by visiting the Trailhead Quests page.

Manage picklist field values with these new features

The Summer ’22 release delivers a set of long-awaited features that let you bulk manage values in a custom picklist field.

Managing picklist values has been a pain point for admins. In fact, easier picklist value management has been a highly voted IdeaExchange idea with more than 13,000 points.

A faulty data import can cause a picklist field to have thousands, or even millions, of incorrect values. Previously, you had to manage picklist values one at a time. The picklist features new to this release include:

• Get a list of custom picklist fields with inactive values—Receive an email that identifies picklists with more than 4,000 inactive values.
• Bulk Delete Inactive Picklist Values (Beta)—Delete all the inactive, unused values for a picklist field with the click of a button.
• Advanced Picklist Value Management (Beta)—Delete, activate, deactivate, or replace multiple picklist values at once. This feature is available only in all sandbox orgs, but you can get it in production by request.

Let’s take a closer look at each new picklist feature and learn how to use them together to more efficiently manage picklist fields in your org.

Find problem picklists

You may already know which picklist fields have a lot of inactive values. But maybe you’re a new admin at your company. Or maybe you’re a consultant helping a client, and you don’t know which picklist fields are weighed down by lots of inactive values. Now you can find out!

Start on the Picklist Settings page by navigating to Setup and entering “Picklist Settings” in the Quick Find box. When you click Email Me, a job runs in the background. This job searches your org for custom picklist fields that contain 4,000 or more inactive values.

After the job completes, you receive an email that lists the field names and the number of inactive values for each field.

Clicking the field name takes you to that field in the Object Manager. This is where the next feature comes into play.

Clean up inactive picklist values

The ability to bulk delete inactive picklist values is a Beta feature, so you first need to opt in. Navigate to Setup and enter “Picklist Settings” in the Quick Find box. Use the toggle to opt in to the Beta.

From the field definition page, click Delete Unused Values. The job that deletes inactive values runs in the background. It can take some time to finish depending on the number of inactive values. If Delete Unused Values is disabled, then you need to opt in.

You see a record of the change in the Setup Audit Trail. After all the picklist values are deleted, you receive an email that tells you whether the deletion was successful or not.

If you receive a success email and still see inactive picklist values in the Inactive Values section, those picklist values likely are referenced in a record. You can only delete picklist values that aren’t used in any records.

Bulk manage picklist values

Now, you can also save time by managing all your picklist values at once. Advanced Picklist Value Management (Beta) is available in all sandbox orgs.

Because it’s a Beta feature, you first need to opt in. Navigate to Setup and enter “Picklist Settings” in the Quick Find box. Use the toggle to opt in to the Beta. After you opt in, the new buttons are enabled.

Click Setup > Object Manager and click the object that contains the custom picklist. Then, navigate to the field definition page by clicking the object and then Fields & Relationships.

In the Values and Inactive Values sections, there’s a checkbox next to each picklist value. Select multiple values and use one of the new buttons:

• Delete Selected
• Deactivate Selected
• Replace Selected
• Activate Selected

If you try out these features in your sandbox org and decide you want them in production, contact your account executive.

We hope this collection of features makes managing large picklist fields easier and more efficient!

Don’t forget to watch the Summer ’22 Admin Preview on May 20 during Release Readiness Live to see demos of a subset of these new, exciting features. And be sure to check out the Learn MOAR Summer ’22 for Admins Trailmix and follow along on the blog this week for more Learn MOAR!

More Learn MOAR

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• Learn MOAR in Summer ’22 with Reports and Dashboards Enhancements ?