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sarathkumr268295
sarathkumr268295
July 30, 2025
Question

Change datatype from Extra long text to Text

  • July 30, 2025
  • 4 replies
  • 0 views

We have some fields with extra long text type in our records. Seems only 3 fields are allowed with extra long text data type and we had 4 fields. We assume this warning is coming because of the recent upgrade. Its showing warning that only 3 fields can have extra long text and its not allowing us to add any column. And we are unable to change datatype from extra long to text from record side. I changed the column from text to varchar in db side but still getting this error. Please let us know how to resolve this issue.

4 replies

shubhama926776
shubhama926776
July 30, 2025

From version 25.1 added the 3 Extra Long Text field limit. I know it's very frustrating when platform updates break existing functionality that was working fine before.

And we are unable to change datatype from extra long to text from record side. I changed the column from text to varchar in db side but still getting this error.

When you change a column from TEXT to VARCHAR in the database, record doesn't automatically update the field type due to caching.
Remove the 4th Extra Long Text field from your Record Type, save, then re-add the same field. It will now correctly show as "Text" type instead of "Extra Long Text" since record will read the updated VARCHAR type from the database. This remove-and-re-add approach is the standard solution for this issue.

Note : When you delete and re-add a field, Appian does NOT automatically update references - you'll need to manually remap the field in all dependent objects. Consider documenting all dependencies first, then update each one after re-adding the field.

    sarathkumr268295
    sarathkumr268295Author
    July 30, 2025

    Thanks Shubham for your reply. Yeah it is frustrating when such scenario happens. Atleast we should have a dropdown option to update the datatype from extra long text to text. Updating all the dependencies will be a tedious process which has to be tested again properly.

    harshas2775
    harshas2775
    July 30, 2025

    You might already know this but just in case mentioning here, we can check the dependents using this icon link in record to get a list of all objects where this field is in use. Keep it handy to update the objects with new field later on, so that regression issues/field not found error can be avoided. 

      sarathkumr268295
      sarathkumr268295Author
      July 30, 2025

      Update on this issue

      Seems this issue goes away once we update the database from text to varchar and go to map record fields and click on finish. [mention:9861aef97eb2483a8b76175d9eda1e37:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] [mention:65b14048184a4eb5aff3a76c87b97431:e9ed411860ed4f2ba0265705b8793d05] 
      Thanks for your inputs

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