# How to remove properties in use **URL:** \ **Category:** HubSpot Community Blog\ **Tags:** strategy-how-to, product-how-to\ **Created:** [October 28, 2021, 12:54pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-to-remove-properties-in-use/45554 "2021-10-28T12:54:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JacquelineOng](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/jacquelineong/32/78108_2.png) [@JacquelineOng](https://community.hubspot.com/u/JacquelineOng)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 12:54pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-to-remove-properties-in-use/45554/1 "2021-10-28T12:54:08Z")
![th19@2x.jpg](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/2X/4/4d76f941bd1aa2ff1553fed01d6b425245e98657.jpeg) Hello there! If you’re looking to remove properties that are inactive or no longer in use, or want to see where properties are being used across your HubSpot account - here is a handy guide on how you can do that. Before jumping in, if you’re looking to archive or delete properties that aren’t being used or that were accidentally created, you can review our KB documentation [here](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/integrations/manage-your-records-in-slack). Often when trying to clean up properties, these properties are being used in various tools, such as forms or workflows. Or, your object records may still have values for these properties. When trying to archive this property, you would see the following message: ![01 Can't archive properties.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/d/e/de714502cdfb23ab66d97a8841592cc1ca3e7101.png) Before you can archive or delete the properties, you will first need to remove the property from places where it’s being used in HubSpot, and/or reset the property values for object records that still have a value for the property. To manage the properties: **u Rename the properties (optional)[/u]** - For example, you could add “[TBD]” to the name of the property. - This helps track the properties to clean up, and is useful when you have multiple duplicate properties with similar names - you don’t want to remove or archive the wrong property! **u Identify where these properties are being used[/u]** - Navigate to the property list page (Settings \> Properties) and click on the number in the “Used In” tab. This takes you to the property itself so you can check which tools are still using the property. - Next, you will want to go into those lists/workflows/forms, etc to remove the property from those tools. ![02 Check places where property is being used in.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/e/7/e7cde8c1cc670d73232acebb9c7d0de0bb4dd51a.png) ![Where property is being used in.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/4/9/49bfb918a3ce2e509022fae4a5a79517a836558a.png) **(3) Check in the CRM that no object records have a value for your property** The number of records that have a value for the property will appear at the top of the _Used in_ tab. You can manually check each property, or alternatively: - You can create a saved view (for tickets, deals, contacts, companies) or list (for companies and contacts) and add “Property name is known” as a filter, which will segment all of the objects that currently have a value for the property. Check out [our KB here for how to use filters in saved views](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/crm-setup/create-customize-and-manage-your-saved-views) or here for [creating a list.](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/lists/create-active-or-static-lists) - You may then[bulk edit the property value](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/crm-setup/how-can-i-bulk-edit-contacts-companies-deals-or-tasks) of your records by following steps here to “reset” them to a _blank empty value._ If you have duplicate properties and want to keep the existing data, you could consider [exporting your records](https://knowledge.hubspot.com/crm-setup/export-contacts-companies-deals-or-tickets) before you reset the values to blank. **(4) Last steps - Delete or archive your properties!** Once you have ensured that the property is no longer being used in HubSpot, and no object records have a value for it, you should be able to safely archive/delete your properties. 🎉 And…that’s it! Hope this helps you to better manage your unwanted properties. If you found this post useful, please upvote it 👍 so that more HubSpot users can find this resource and benefit. If you’ve found any other alternative workarounds for managing your properties, do share in the comments below ⬇ ---
**Author:** ![karstenkoehler](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/karstenkoehler/32/68554_2.png) [@karstenkoehler](https://community.hubspot.com/u/karstenkoehler)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2021, 12:56pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-to-remove-properties-in-use/45554/2 "2021-10-28T12:56:04Z")
Thanks for sharing @JacquelineOng 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![danmoyle](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/danmoyle/32/91166_2.png) [@danmoyle](https://community.hubspot.com/u/danmoyle)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2021, 12:03pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-to-remove-properties-in-use/45554/3 "2021-10-29T12:03:20Z")
I’ll be sharing this with clients. Nicely laid out @JacquelineOng - thank you! ---
**Author:** ![liangsj](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/liangsj/32/20452_2.png) [@liangsj](https://community.hubspot.com/u/liangsj)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2021, 1:06am UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-to-remove-properties-in-use/45554/4 "2021-12-08T01:06:00Z")
Awesome! @JacquelineOng Will be sharing this with our customers if I do come across such questions. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![CharlyFR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a5b964/32.png) [@CharlyFR](https://community.hubspot.com/u/CharlyFR)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2022, 4:18pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-to-remove-properties-in-use/45554/5 "2022-02-28T16:18:04Z")
Hello, I have the same issue, i’ve deleted some properties, i’m only using 7, how can I create new one to use my 10 customer properties ? thanks ---
**Author:** ![Cristina3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Cristina3](https://community.hubspot.com/u/Cristina3)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 12:02pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-to-remove-properties-in-use/45554/6 "2022-03-02T12:02:36Z")
Hi, I have a notification to state that i’ve used the 10 custom fields we have with the free version. However, I can only see 8 in use. I have been adviced to ask the community for help. Any suggestions? I’ve checked the other users and the archives but still can only find 8 properties ---
**Author:** ![danmoyle](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/danmoyle/32/91166_2.png) [@danmoyle](https://community.hubspot.com/u/danmoyle)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2022, 12:45pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-to-remove-properties-in-use/45554/7 "2022-03-02T12:45:39Z")
Hi @Cristina3. I’ve not used HubSpot free, so I’m just guessing here. Can you only make 10 over the lifetime of the free portal? Like maybe you’ve made the other 2 and even if they’ve been deleted and you have 8, since someone made the other 2 at some point, that’s the limit? That would be my guess if you’re looking in properties and only see 8 made by y’all and not HubSpot. That’s my educated guess. ---
**Author:** ![MilesHeadStart](https://d10pqhm3lwygmk.cloudfront.net/user_avatar/community.hubspot.com/milesheadstart/32/51438_2.png) [@MilesHeadStart](https://community.hubspot.com/u/MilesHeadStart)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://community.hubspot.com/t/how-to-remove-properties-in-use/45554/8 "2022-04-25T18:54:04Z")
_edit: a good ol’ refresh and now it’s letting me do this. Leaving here in case someone else is going crazy wondering why there are no objects with a value set but it is telling you there is (lol)_ Hi there, we have hit a very restricting blocker with the way this is setup. At some point, someone changed our State/Region property to _Multiple Checkboxes_ and now we need to adjust it back to _single line text_ because it is creating errors when adding new companies. The issue is this is a HubSpot created property and it won’t let you clone or archive the property. We cleared all the labels so no properties have a value for it, but it still says it has a “value on # objects”. Is there any way to workaround this? Can’t see how importing in with new values would fix it because it would still be set as _Multiple Checkboxes_ and that is essentially what we need to adjust.. ![MilesHeadStart_0-1650912807462.png](https://d2qpr2jzcazej7.cloudfront.net/original/3X/b/2/b2b2173fec169e4901538e5c2204277f3c3b8dd6.png)