Why does a lookup value provide a default value when a document is loaded

Question

I created a site column called Clients which is a lookup column based on a list called clients. The clients list has a column called client. The client list for the column client has values client a client b client c, all, etc.....

I then created a library and one of the required columns is my site column "Clients". When I load a document to this library I see 2 odd behaviors:

1-It inputs a default value of ALL into the Clients column even though nowhere did I ever specify a default value. In fact i did not think it was even possible to set a default value on a lookup field.

2-Even though I never filled some other required fields it still loaded in the document (checked in)..However I never want the document to load if the required fields are not completed.

Answer 1

The act of making it a required field forces it to select the first item in the lookup list as the default value. If you don't want to make it required, you can use a validation rule on the list to make it required.

By uploading it, it will always be there, it will only be visible to you until all the metadata is available and then checked in. If you don't want that to happen, then you'd likely have to roll your own event receiver to delete the file.