List Item Description not showing up when viewing item?

Question

Ok so I have a List and it has a Description column, the one that is default and I cannot delete it. The problem is that the Description field will show up when you are creating a list item but when you view a list item (by clicking on it in the list) the description is not there...any idea why this is? I don't think it has to do with the view since that does not dictate whether it should appear in the form that opens up to when you view the item. I am totally confused by this...

EDIT: I have the solution from the comment with this code:

$web = Get-SPWeb http://server/subsite
$list = $web.GetList("subsite/Lists/My List")
$field = $list.Fields.GetFieldByInternalName("Description")
$field.Hidden = $false
$field.Update()

EDIT 2.0: Ok I got a little futher but now I get this error:

Exception calling "GetFieldByInternalName" with "1" argument    (s): "Column 'Description'    does not exist. It may have been deleted by another user.  /company/Lists/My List"

I'm confused, why does it say its been deleted when I can see the description column in the list settings?

EDIT 3.0: Ok after some searching I got rid of all errors but the column is still not displayed, its only visible if you edit the list item but not if you just click it to display.

$web = Get-SPWeb http://sharepoint/company
$list = $web.GetList("/company/Lists/My List")
$field = $list.Fields["Description"]

$field.Hidden = $false
$field.ShowInDisplayForm = $true
$field.ShowInViewForms = $true

$field.Update()
$list.Update()
$web.Dispose()

Any ideas? I really need to get this working and am totally stumped why its not working.

Answer 1

If you have sharepoint manager (found on codeplex) then you can determine whether this column is hidden or not. I think there is a powershell command to find this info. Hope this helps. How do I unhide hidden column in SharePoint 2010?

$web = Get-SPWeb http://server
$list = $web.GetList("/Lists/Test")
$field = $list.Fields.GetFieldByInternalName("Created")
$field.Hidden = $false
$field.Update()

Answer 2

OK figured it out, this code works in my case for any column other than the Description. Turns out that column is a renamed column out of the two default ones so I don't think I can show it on the display form.

$web = Get-SPWeb http://sharepoint/company
$list = $web.GetList("/company/Lists/Agenda Items")
$field = $list.Fields["Item Description"]

$field.Hidden = $true
$field.ShowInDisplayForm = $true
$field.ShowInViewForms = $true

$field.Update()
$list.Update()
$web.Dispose()