How to Troubleshoot “Quick Edit – This Control is Currently Disabled” Warning in SharePoint

I received the following screenshot from a client the other day. They had recently migrated their intranet to SharePoint Online in Office 365, and expressed concern over the following warning message that popped up when they were working in a list:

This warning message led the end user to conclude that the ability to perform bulk edits to list items via the Quick Edit was currently disabled. Their login was granted Owner permissions to the site, and no modifications to the granular permissions for the Owner Level had been made.

Sleuthing time!

Replicating the same warning message in my own environment helped solve the mystery. Here’s a screenshot of the same warning message in my SharePoint environment:

Have you spotted the clue? (Hint: It’s blue).

Here’s two more screenshots to compare that may assist…

Here is a screenshot of a list in “View Format“:

 Here is a screenshot of a list in “Quick Edit View Format“:

Clue #1 – There’s a blue box around the first item in your list.

Clue #2 – The Quick Edit button in the ribbon is grayed out.

Clue #3 – A control is another word for a command button.

Solution: The reason this “control is currently disabled” is because the Quick Edit View Format is already selected. The warning only comes up when you try to click on the Quick Edit button when you’re already in Quick Edit View Format.

You can tell you’re in the Quick Edit View Format because:

1. the first item in your list has a blue box around it
2. the “Stop Editing This List” button has replaced the “+ New item or Edit this list” button
3. the list items have a table around them
4. the Quick Edit Command button is grayed out

Now, there are instances when Quick Edit functionality truly does not function properly.

Here is a quick summary list of items to troubleshoot that could trigger issues:

1. Have you clicked on an item in the list?
2. Have you removed any filtering on the list columns?
3. Have you removed all the calculated columns?
4. Have you selected a default view that is configured to disable Quick Edit functionality?

If you find yourself saying “yes” or “maybe” to any of the questions above, I highly encourage you to read my colleague Bruce Norman Smith‘s blog post titled “Or Edit This List (Quick Edit – Part 1)”.

He has down a fantastic job of presenting his detailed findings that would be very useful for a SharePoint Site Admin to make some simple edits to regain the glory that is making batch edits in Quick Edit View Format, which I feel is one of the hidden gems that make SharePoint convenient and easy to use.