Remove - Content Type Column doesn't remove column from List

Question

As option says while "Change Content Type Column"

"Specify whether all child site and list content types using this type should be updated with the settings on this page. This operation can take a long time, and any customizations made to these values on the child site and list content types will be lost."

However, when I remove with Yes checked for "Update all content types inheriting from this type?" Field gets deleted from All content types but not from the list. I was expecting that column on the SharePoint list to also get deleted. Am I missing something?

Answer 1

This appears to be default behavior. Whether or not a list with your assigned CT has data in for that particular CT or not, the field will always remain on the list. Keep in mind that it is removing the field from the content type as it says, but not the list. The site column will remain, and it will continue to hold value for the data within that specific field. For example, if you were to reintroduce that site column to the CT it would bring back the old data.

This is most likely by design. Things would get tricky if someone were to add a site column which was also referenced by your CT, include data, then add the CT afterwards and include data for that. You can see how this is a quick but odd scenario on trying to work out what would be done if you tried removing the field from your CT after that occurred.

As far as I know there is no way through the GUI to forcibly remove the field from lists that it was applied to.