How do I pull a hidden custom field into a smart campaign?

[Ronn_Burner]

We have a custom field that I can see has been used in smart campaigns (External Company ID) but I cannot find it to use in smart campaigns/lists, etc. But I can see it in Field Management and it has been used previously. How can I gain access to this custom field?

[Chelsea_Kiko]

Hi there, in the field management section where you can see the field has been used, can you take a screenshot so I can help? Is this field synced with your CRM?

[Ronn_Burner]

[Chris_Wilcox]

Hi Ronn,

Marketo shouldn't allow you to mark a field as "Hidden" if it is currently in use somewhere in the instance. You can check this by visiting the Field Management section in Admin, finding the field, and looking at the settings. You can see in my screenshot below where it shows "Hidden" as "True," if that's the case for your field, you can click the field actions dropdown and unhide the field.

If it's NOT hidden and you're not seeing it in smart list filters, message back or send some screenshots of the field settings so we can get to the bottom of what's going on.

Thanks!

Chris

[Ronn_Burner]

Okay. Well, that "Unhide Field" got me this far and then I hit this road block.

Also, it does not appear to be synced to our CRM - which is a custom CRM therefore not synced to our Custom Objects. I inherited this world but it looks like these are list imports maybe? Not sure. I don't understand how I can see it used in places yet I can't access it.

[Chris_Wilcox]

Definitely a weird one. The reason you can't access is because it's hidden (which frankly is the expected behavior of Marketo, hidden = you can't find it). However, I didn't think it was possible to hide a field if it was being references somewhere in Marketo, which is why you see it in Smart Lists but you can't search for it yourself.

If it were me, I'd submit a ticket to support. Maybe they can unhide it for you in the backend to get around that error?

[Ronn_Burner]

Oh. Man. Nightmare. Thank. Hopefully one of the Marketo Champions sees this. Those guys have seen it all.

[Chris_Wilcox]

Hahah I've seen a lot, but never this. My experience with hidden fields is that you literally can't hide a field until it's references are removed. So your inherited state where it IS hidden, but IS referenced is not normal. My guess is that's it's because of your CRM, but that's a guess.

Your other option is to go through your whole Marketo instance, remove every reference to the field, then unhide it. I doubt you want to do that, so Marketo support is your best bet!

[Ronn_Burner]

Right!? And I think you are totally correct. Custom CRM life is new to me and it has certainly presented it's share of issues. But what you are saying about how hidden fields in addition to what Marketo Support had to say it educated me on how it should work and what may have caused this abnormality.

Marketo Support said this....

Agent Apr 10, 2019, 12:07pm

Usually it is not possible now to hide a field if it is used in various campaigns or programs. Probably this field was hidden before we had the warning message update.

[Chris_Wilcox]

Ahhh ok so it was a bug they fixed and your predecessor hid the field and now you're in hidden-field-jail. Definitely ask if Marketo Support can unhide on your behalf, your issue would be solved if they did that for you.

I can completely understand the custom CRM life, it's never easy working with a home-grown system in almost any capacity.