How to Delete a Pivot Table in Excel

Trying to delete a pivot table in Excel should be straightforward, but it often comes with a few frustrating quirks, like stubborn error messages or lingering data that keeps your file size bloated. This tutorial covers everything you need to know to completely and cleanly remove a pivot table for good, including the hidden data you might not realize is still there.

Why Would You Need to Delete a Pivot Table?

Before jumping into the "how," it's helpful to understand the "why." While pivot tables are incredibly powerful for summarizing data, there are several common reasons you might want to remove one:

• The Analysis is Complete: You've used the pivot table to find your insights, and now you no longer need the interactive report cluttering up your spreadsheet.

• Reducing File Size: Pivot tables store a copy of your source data in a "pivot cache," which can make your Excel file surprisingly large. Deleting the pivot table (and its cache) is a great way to slim down your workbook.

• Starting Fresh: Sometimes, a pivot table becomes overly complex, is no longer pointing to the correct data, or is just behaving strangely. Deleting it and starting over is often the fastest way to fix the problem.

• The Data is Obsolete: If the underlying report is no longer relevant, it’s good practice to remove it to avoid confusion for anyone else using the workbook.

Method 1: The Quick Delete

This is the simplest and most common method for deleting the visible part of the pivot table from your worksheet. If you're getting an error that says, "Cannot change this part of a PivotTable report," it's because you haven't selected the entire table. This method ensures you do.

Follow these steps:

1. Click on any single cell inside your pivot table. This will make the "PivotTable Analyze" tab (sometimes called "Options" in older Excel versions) appear in the top ribbon.

2. Navigate to the PivotTable Analyze tab.

3. On the far left of the ribbon, find the "Actions" group. Click the Select dropdown menu.

4. Choose Entire PivotTable. This will highlight the entire pivot table report area, and nothing more.

5. With the entire table selected, simply press the Delete key on your keyboard.

The visual part of your pivot table will vanish from the worksheet. For many, this is good enough. However, this quick method often leaves behind the pivot cache, which brings us to the most important part of cleaning up your workbook.

Understanding the Pivot Cache - The "Hidden" Part of Your Pivot Table

When you create a pivot table, Excel takes a snapshot of your source data and stores it in memory. This snapshot is called a pivot cache. It's the secret ingredient that makes pivot tables so fast and responsive. When you drag and drop fields, you're not re-querying your original, potentially massive dataset over and over. You're just reorganizing data that's already loaded into this efficient cache.

The problem? When you delete the pivot table using the quick method above, you're only deleting the visual summary report on the worksheet. Excel often keeps the pivot cache hidden in the background.

This can lead to a few issues:

• Bloated File Size: Since the cache is a full copy of your data, it can take up a lot of space. If your original data was 50,000 rows, that cache will hold 50,000 rows of data, even after the visual table is gone.

• Memory Usage: Large caches consume your computer's memory, which can slow down Excel's performance.

• Old Data Lingering: It can leave sensitive or old data in the file that you thought you had removed.

Method 2: How to Delete a Pivot Table AND its Cache

If your goal is to reduce file size or totally scrub the table and its associated data from the workbook, you must make sure the cache is removed. Just pressing "delete" isn't enough. Here's a slightly more robust, if unconventional, method that works well.

Step-by-Step Guide to Deleting the Cache

The trick is to force Excel to recognize that no pivot tables are using the cache anymore, which compels it to purge the cache when the file is saved.

1. Delete All Pivot Tables Using the Cache: If you have multiple pivot tables running off the same source data, they likely share one cache. You need to delete all of them for this to work. Use Method 1 described above to delete each pivot table.

2. Cut the Pivot Table Sheet (A reliable trick): Another foolproof way to isolate and kill a cache is to move the pivot table out of the workbook entirely.

   • Select the worksheet containing the pivot table.

   • Right-click the sheet tab and select Move or Copy...

   • In the "To book:" dropdown, select (new book).

   • Click OK. This will create a new Excel workbook containing just your pivot table sheet.

   • Close this new workbook without saving it.

   • Now, go back to your original workbook.

3. Save and Reopen: Save your original workbook (the one you moved the sheet from), close it, and then reopen it. By saving, Excel completes a refresh and purges any "orphan" caches that are no longer linked to any pivot tables in the file.

You should see a noticeable reduction in your file size if the pivot cache was large. This confirms the hidden data has been removed.

Using a Simple VBA Macro (For Advanced Users)

If you find yourself cleaning up caches regularly or have a complex workbook, a simple VBA macro can do the job instantly. Don’t be intimidated, you can just copy and paste this code.

First, always save a backup of your file before running a macro.

1. Press Alt + F11 to open the VBA Editor.

2. In the VBA Editor menu, go to Insert > Module. A blank code window will appear.

3. Copy and paste the following code into the module window:

1. Close the VBA Editor (click the X or press Alt + Q).

2. Back in your Excel sheet, press Alt + F8 to open the Macro dialog box.

3. Select PurgeUnusedPivotCaches and click Run.

The code will scan your entire workbook, see which caches are still attached to active pivot tables, and delete any that are not. It's a precise and powerful way to clean house.

Troubleshooting Common Pivot Table Deletion Problems

Sometimes things just don't go as planned. Here are solutions to the most frequent issues you might face.

Error: "Cannot change this part of a PivotTable report."

This is easily the most common error. It happens when you try to perform an action (like deleting a row, a column, or just some cells) that would disrupt the structure of the pivot table.

• The Cause: You have selected only part of the pivot table, or you are trying to delete rows/columns that intersect with the pivot table's footprint.

• The Fix: You must select the entire pivot table before you can delete it. Use the recommended method: Click in the table > PivotTable Analyze > Select > Entire PivotTable. Then press Delete. This ensures you’re removing the object as a whole.

Problem: "I deleted the source data, but the pivot table is still there."

This surprises a lot of users. It goes back to the pivot cache.

• The Cause: The pivot table runs off its internal cache, not the live source data. Deleting the source data from a tab simply breaks the pivot table's ability to refresh. The table will still display its last known data until you attempt a refresh.

• The Fix: Deleting the source data and deleting the pivot table are two separate actions. You must delete the pivot table itself using the methods outlined above, regardless of what you do with the source data sheet.

Problem: "The Excel file is still huge after deleting the table."

You followed Method 1, deleted the visual, saved the file, and its size barely changed.

• The Cause: You have a leftover pivot cache. Simple deletion only removes the surface-level report.

• The Fix: Go back and follow the steps in Method 2. By moving the pivot table sheet out of the workbook or running the VBA macro, you force Excel to purge the unused cache, which is what holds the bulk of the data and contributes to file size.

Final Thoughts

Deleting a pivot table in Excel is a two-step process: first you remove the visual report from the worksheet, and just as importantly, you ensure the underlying pivot cache is removed to keep your workbook efficient and light. Using the "Select Entire PivotTable" command and understanding how to purge the cache will save you from common errors and frustrations.

At Graphed, our entire platform is built to solve this kind of data wrangling so you can get straight to the insights. We replace the tedious process of managing pivot caches and updating manual reports by connecting directly to your live data sources. Instead of building tables by hand, you just ask Graphed what you want to see - like, "Show me last month’s sales broken down by campaign" - and we build a real-time, shareable dashboard for you instantly. It's all the power of data analysis without any of the spreadsheet busywork.