Delete PageLayout fails because of reference to non existing page

Question

I would like to delete a pagelayout from SharePoint, but I get the exception "This item cannot be deleted because it is still referenced by other pages". When I open the "content and sructure" view, select the layout page and press the button "show related ressources" I can see that the layout is used by a page. But this page does not exist.

I cleared the personal and sitecollection recycle bin to make sure no deleted version of the page exists. I also did a search on the contentdb and there I found a record with leafname = "CodesTest.aspx" in table "AllDocs".

But the question is - where is this page (CodeTest.aspx) and how can I get rid of it so I can delete the pagelayout?

Thanks for you help!

Kind regards

Answer 1

possible reason could be user should have checked out and not checked in. In this case that reference will still exits. you can check this by going into the page library settings and clicking 'Manage files which have no checked in version'., sharepoint will display list of files checked out by others. Once you checkin the file, you will be able to delete it.

Answer 2

The same error happened to me yesterday!

I couldn't find any pages using my layout, so this is how I fixed it.

1. I created a folder called "DeleteMe"
2. I moved my layout into that folder.
3. I edited the properties of the bad layout.
4. I changed the type from 'Page Layout' to 'Design file'
5. The layout stopped showing up as an option.

You might be able to check it out and delete it in explorer, but I didn't.

It doesn't take up too much space (~30 kb).

Good luck!