Receiving 'Element is using storage alias' error when attempting to change dictionary column type

[Troy S_]

I have 2 custom fields that I need to change from a string to HTML.   However every time I attempt this I get the following error "Element is using storage alias.   Cannot modify this element's type because it shares a storage alias:[task.u_test shared with 2 total element(s)].   I was able to change a couple of them that where not custom fields.   I know there is a work around, but I do not/cannot delete it and rebuild it as it contains information that is still needed for past changes.

Thank You in advanced

Troy

[Chuck Tomasi]

Yes. If the field is shared among other tables (as many in the task hierarchy are) you'll get a message like this. It is less common on fields you create on your tables.

[SC10]

This is what I did though, I made a brand new Date/Time field on my incident table for testing, and then when trying to change it to "Due Date" type (Date was not available.. what I really wanted to change it to) provided this error. Do you know of a way to get the field changed over to the glide_date type instead of glide_date_time?

[Chuck Tomasi]

The best way to change it is:

1. Create a new glide_date field
2. Copy over the values from the old to field to the new
3. Remove the old field

[SC10]

Oh for sure, but this would have to be done for hundreds of production Project records... would glide_date_time entries be compatible to automatically migrate to a glide_date field?

[Chuck Tomasi]

Yes. I just did a quick test in scripts background like this. It took '2017-05-31 09:33:02' and saved it in the date field exactly as 2017-05-31

var r = new GlideRecord('tableName');

r.get('SYS_ID');

r.date = r.date_and_time;

r.update();