How to Promote a Picklist to a Global Picklist

Updated: Nov 12, 2019

Here’s the deal…someone’s asked you to create a custom picklist and you’ve done it. Now, they’re asking you to create the same custom picklist field with the same picklist values on a different object.

Had you known that the field would be used across multiple objects you would have created a global picklist, but you already created the picklist field. What should you do? You should promote your picklist field to a global picklist. Promoting the existing picklist field allows you the opportunity for a do over.

Promoting your picklist to a global picklist creates administration efficiency and reduces field management time. In our last post we explained when you should use a picklist vs a global picklist. This post will explain how to promote a picklist into a global picklist.

Here are the steps

To promote a picklist to a global picklist:

In Lightning Experience:

1. Go to Setup > Object Manager.

2. Navigate to the object where you’d like to promote the picklist and select the picklist field.

In Classic:

1. Go to Set-up.

2. If you're adding a field to a standard Salesforce object:

Type the name of the object where'd you like to promote the picklist in the Quick Find Box, click "Fields" and select the picklist field.

3. If you're adding a field to a custom Salesforce object:

Go to Build > Create > Objects and then find your object in the list

4. Find the custom picklist field that you want and click on the field name

5. Review the custom picklist field to ensure the "Restrict picklist to the values defined in the value set" is set to checked. If so, click "Edit".

6. Click the “Promote to Global Value Set” button.

7. Enter the name (Label) of your Global Picklist and be sure to include a description. Click the "Promote to Global Value Set" button.

8. After promoting your picklist to a Global Value Set, you’ll see a new field appear on the custom picklist field record named "Global Value Set".

9. Go to Setup, type Picklist in the Quick Find box and select Picklist Value Sets to review the new Global Picklist. Click on your new Global Picklist Value Set.

10. The Global Picklist value set will show (A) the values that are associated to the value set

and (B) where the picklist value set is being used.

Keep in mind, once you promote a picklist, you can’t undo it.

A Few Things to Remember:

You cannot promote a standard Salesforce picklist field to a global picklist
If your picklist has 1,000 values or more the field cannot be converted into a global picklist. This includes active AND inactive values.
The picklist field that you are converting must have restricted picklist values.
You cannot (as of this post writing) convert a custom picklist field to an existing global picklist BUT if you think this functionality is needed, click on the link below and vote for the idea.

https://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000cJegAAE

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