Deleting custom fields that aren't used on any custom forms?

[-JC]

I'm fairly confident that custom fields not being used on any custom forms no longer hold any data, and can therefore be deleted without much consequence. What are others' experiences with this? The only thing I can think of us that they may be used in Views/Filters/Groupings or Reports and just show as blank.

I opened a Support ticket for further clarity, but it's made me less confident - the answer was: "The answer would be yes, you can delete custom fields that aren’t being used on any custom forms, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Even if a field isn’t on a form anymore, it may still contain data that was entered while it was in use. Deleting the field will permanently erase all data associated with it from any objects (like projects, tasks, or issues) where it was previously stored. Once the field is deleted, it will also disappear from any custom forms it was on, even if those forms are already attached to projects. To avoid losing anything important, it’s a good idea to confirm the field isn’t being actively used or storing critical data. If you’re unsure, you could rename the field (e.g., adding "To Delete") and wait for a bit before fully removing it. That way, you can feel confident that deleting it won’t have unintended consequences."

I've gone back to Support for clarification on how I can even find what data these fields may contain, since you can't pull unused fields into reports. Hoping to get some information from the Community as well. Thanks all!

[skyehansen]

I guess I wonder why that's even a consideration? Can you say more on this?

My opinion only:

I would have stopped with "the field isn't being used anymore". It really doesn't matter at that point whether it holds data. And if the field is not being used on any custom forms, this is doubly the case. Frankly, I dispute the assertion that a field "may still contain data" -- this is easy to test. Just add the field to a form, fill it in, delete it, and bring it back. 9 times out of 10 this has definitely led to a loss of data for me -- that I would want to keep an unused around just on the off chance I can somehow retrieve data from it just has me shaking my head. 

The language I am reading above seems to be trying to cover all bases -- in the event that you have missed that the custom field IS being used in a form, then you will lose data for sure. Renaming the field relies on your users noticing that one out of their dozens of fields has been renamed to delete. If your users are observant in this way, more power to you.

[-JC]

It's a consideration because we've been trying to amalgamate an "unbridled" array of fields that are redundant, used across different areas of our org who each had their own system administrators - it's not so much "we don't need this data point anymore". Other consideration is cleaning up the long list to aid in future sysadmins when creating new custom forms - no longer having to say "no don't use that version of that field, that one's the old version", etc. I was under the same impression as you, that a field "may still contain data" doesn't sound right.

[skyehansen]

Sorry if I mis-stated. When I say "this field isn't being used anymore", I meant it as an agreement to the part of your original post, stating "custom fields not being used on any custom forms". This is pretty easy to check: the custom fields section in setup has a way to set up a column to see what forms and what reports are using the field.

If the forms column is blank, I would not give it another thought -- just delete. I mean, for sure, you can check what reports are using it, as a courtesy but in normal cases, if the forms column is empty then the reports have had a problem for a while now...