How To Reset Id In SharePoint List

Are you trying to reset the sharepoint list ID to 1? We got the requirement recently from one of my SharePoint consulting clients.

In this tutorial, I will explain how to reset the ID in a SharePoint list for the SharePoint on-premises version and give you an alternative approach for SharePoint Online.

Every SharePoint list item will have one ID associated with it. If you have five items and you delete all five from the SharePoint list, then next time you try to add one item to the list, the ID will start from 6, not 1.

Reset ID in SharePoint List (SharePoint Online)

In SharePoint Online, you can not reset the ID in a SharePoint list. An alternative approach is to create another list using this existing list. You can check out this tutorial to learn more about how to create a list from an existing list in SharePoint Online.

Reset ID in SharePoint List (SharePoint On-Premises)

In SharePoint on-premises versions, there is also no standard way to reset the ID apart from resetting the value in the SharePoint content database.

But this is not a recommended approach, and Microsoft strictly does not recommend changing anything in the content database. Take special care while doing this kind of modification.

Before opening your database for modification, make sure you have the SharePoint list GUID.

AllListsAux table in the content database maintains information about Item count and ID details for all lists in SharePoint.

Then open the database and run the following command:

SELECT * FROM [ContentDBName].[dbo].[AllListsAux] where ListID='GUID of the List'

Example:

SELECT * FROM [WSS_Content].[dbo].[AllListsAux] where ListID='B13CC473-6187-4478-A0DD-853E83AA6F9D'

It will display like below:

Now, if you add an item to the SharePoint list, the next list item ID will be generated like below:

Then, run the below command to reset the value:

UPDATE [Content DB].dbo.AllListsAux set NextAvailableId=1 where ListID='GUID of the List'

Example:

UPDATE [WSS_Content].dbo.AllListsAux set NextAvailableId=1 where ListID='B13CC473-6187-4478-A0DD-853E83AA6F9D'

Now, if you add an item to the list, then the item will be reset (Item ID will start from 1) like below:

This is how to reset the ID in a SharePoint list in SharePoint on-premises.

If you do not want to modify the database, then you can save the list as a template and then use that template to create a new SharePoint list.

I hope you now understand how to reset the ID in a SharePoint list. Following the above methods, you can reset the sharepoint list ID to 1.

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Bijay Kumar

After working for more than 18 years in Microsoft technologies like SharePoint, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, and Power BI), I thought will share my SharePoint expertise knowledge with the world. Our audiences are from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, etc. For my expertise knowledge and SharePoint tutorials, Microsoft has been awarded a Microsoft SharePoint MVP (12 times). I have also worked in companies like HP, TCS, KPIT, etc.