WhereUsed
What breaks when you rename or delete a monday.com column
Columns on one board are often used by other boards: a Mirror column shows their values somewhere else, and a Formula column calculates with them. monday.com does not show you those links on the column you are about to change, so it is easy to break another team's board without knowing it. What breaks depends on whether you rename the column or delete it.
Renaming a column
- Formula columns can break. A formula refers to other columns by their name, written in curly brackets, such as
{Budget}. When you rename the column, monday.com does not rewrite the formulas that use the old name, and it does not warn you. Those formulas stop working. - Mirror columns keep working. A Mirror refers to the column it shows by the column's internal ID, not its name, so a rename does not affect it.
Deleting a column
- Mirror columns that show it lose their data. The column they point to is gone.
- Deleting a Connect Boards column affects every Mirror that uses it. A Mirror gets its values through a Connect Boards column, so removing that link removes the data the Mirror shows.
- Formulas that use it stop working, the same as with a rename.
A deleted column goes to the trash, where it can be restored for 30 days by an account admin or the person who deleted it (see monday.com's trash section guide). Restoring it in time brings the links back; after 30 days it is gone for good.
How to check before you change a column
Without an app, you have to open the boards that might use the column and look through their Mirror and Formula settings one by one. That works for a few boards, but not across a whole account, and boards you cannot open are invisible to you anyway.
WhereUsed does that search for you. It scans every board you can open and lists, for each column, the Mirror, Formula and Connect Boards columns that depend on it, including on other teams' boards. It only reads board structure, never item values, and never changes anything. After a rename or deletion, it also tells you which formulas it broke and how long the deleted column can still be restored.
Automations, dashboards, forms and integrations can also use a column. WhereUsed doesn't check those, so review them before you delete a column.