How to deactivate global picklist value in Salesforce

In this Salesforce tutorial, we will learn how to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce. In addition, we will look at how Salesforce Lightning and Salesforce Classic are used to deactivate the global picklist value in existing records.

I am working in an organization that uses Salesforce for its business management. And the organization deals with “Electronics”, “Clothing”, and “Home Appliances”, but due to COVID-19 losses, my organization decided to temporarily stop selling the “Home Appliances”.

As a Salesforce developer, I got a task to temporarily lock the “Home Appliances” category. So after looking at the multiple solutions, I found a solution that helped me to deactivate the global picklist value “Home Appliances” in Salesforce.

If you want to learn how I deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Lightning as well as Salesforce Classic, you have come to the right place.

What does deactivating global picklist value mean

In Salesforce, deactivating the global picklist value means disabling and removing of global picklist value from the predefined list of the global picklist value options.

By deactivating the global picklist value users are not able to select this global picklist value anymore but it remains in the system records. If you want to reactivate it again, you can activate it. Let’s understand this with the help of an example.

Suppose we have a global picklist called “Ticket Priority” with values such as “High”, “Medium”, “Low”, and “Urgent”. Now due to a change in the ticket management process, the company wants to disable the “Urgent” value field temporarily.

For this, we will deactivate the global picklist value “Urgent” from the ticket priority global picklist set. Now, wherever a user will see the picklist, they will not get an option named “Urgent”.

With this, we have understood the meaning of deactivating the global picklist value in Salesforce with an example. Now, we will proceed and learn to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Lightning.

How to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Lightning

Here, are the steps to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Lightning.

Step 1: First log in to the Salesforce account and select “Setup” from the menu in the top right corner of the page.

Step 2: Search for “Picklist Value Sets”, in the “Quick Find” box.

Step 3: Click on the “Picklist Value Sets”.

Step 4: After clicking on it, we will redirect to the “Picklist Value Sets” page. Now, click on the existing global picklist value set whose picklist value you want to deactivate. Here, I select the “Continent” global picklist value set.

Step 5: Find the global picklist value that you want to deactivate and click on the “Deactivate” link next to it. Here, I select the “South America” picklist value.

Step 6: With a click, it will show up a pop-up, click on the “OK” button, if you surely want to deactivate it.

Step 7: To check whether the global picklist values have been deactivated correctly, navigate to the item where you use the global picklist values that have been modified.

With this, we have successfully learned to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Lightning Component. Now, we will proceed and learn to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Classic.

Read How to delete global picklist value in Salesforce

How to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Classic

Here, are the steps to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Classic.

Step 1: We must first sign in to Salesforce Classic. To do this, click on “Avatar” and select “Switch to Salesforce Classic”.

Step 2: Then, select “Setup” from the menu.

Step 3: Scroll down to the “Build” section. Select the “Picklist Value Sets” option under “Create”.

Step 4: It will redirect you to the “Picklist Value Sets” page. Now, click on the existing global picklist value whose picklist global value you want to deactivate. Here, I select the “Payment Method” global picklist value set.

Step 5: Find the global picklist value that you want to deactivate and click on the “Deactivate” link next to it. Here, I select the “PayPal” global picklist value.

Step 6: With a click, it will show up a pop-up, click on the “OK” button, if you surely want to deactivate it.

Step 7: To check whether the global picklist values have been deactivated correctly, navigate to the item where you use the global picklist values that have been modified.

With this, we have successfully learned to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Classic Component.

Conclusion

In a nutshell, we have learned that in Salesforce deactivating the global picklist value is the process of making a certain option or choice in a global picklist field on records inaccessible for selection.

In addition, we have also learned the steps to deactivate the global picklist value in Salesforce Lightning and in Salesforce Classic Component.

You may also like to read the following articles:

• How to rename the global picklist value in Salesforce
• How to replace global picklist value in Salesforce
• How to Activate Global Picklist Value in Salesforce