How to Remove Drop Down List (Data validation) in Excel

In Excel, when you are using a drop-down list, and you don’t need it anymore, the best thing is to remove it to free the cell for all kinds of data to enter. We have discussed three methods in this tutorial:

• The first method only removes the drop-down list, not the value that you have in the cell.
• The second method clears the drop-down list as well as the value from the cell.
• The third method deletes the cell entirely.

The quickest way to remove the drop-down list is to use the keyboard shortcut Alt ⇢ H ⇢ E ⇢ A.

Steps to Remove a Drop-Down List

To get rid of a drop-down list, use the following steps:

1. First, select the cell or range of cells where you have the data validation drop-down list.
   
2. After that, go to the Data Tab ⇢ Data ⇢ Data validation ⇢ Data Validation (You can also use the keyboard shortcut Alt ⇢ A ⇢ V ⇢ V).
   
3. Now, you have the Data Validation dialog box, and you need to click the “Clear All” button.
   
4. In the end, click OK to close the data validation dialog box.
   

As you can see the value which you have in the cell is still there, not deleted.

Get Rid of Drop Down List with Clear All Option

1. First, select the cell with the drop-down list.
   
2. After that go to the Home Tab ⇢ Editing ⇢ Clear All.
   
3. Now, click on the “Clear All” option from here.

The moment you click on the option, it clears everything from the cell including the drop-down list that you have in the cell.

You can also use the shortcut key Alt ⇢ H ⇢ E ⇢ A to clear content from the cell. Apart from that, from the right-click menu you can use the clear content option to delete the drop-down list from the cell.

Delete Cell Entirely to Remove the Drop Down List

There could be a situation when you want to delete the cell to delete the drop-down list.

1. First, select the cell and right-click on it.
2. And, from the right-click menu, click on the “Delete” option.
   
3. Now, here you have the dialog box to delete the cell.
   
4. From here, choose any of the above two options and click Ok to delete the cell.

This will delete the selected cell data validation will also be gone with it.