Learning how to use Google Sheets can be confusing at first, especially if you are new to spreadsheets. One common task that often trips people up is deleting multiple sheets simultaneously.
If you have a Google Sheets file housing many unnecessary sheets, deleting them one by one can be tedious. But guess what? We have found a couple of simple tricks you can leverage to delete multiple Google Sheets tabs in one go.
Today’s article will explain how to delete multiple sheets in Google Sheets. This will allow you to quickly remove duplicate sheets, get rid of sheets you no longer need, or do some spring cleaning on a cluttered Google Sheets file.
After reading today’s guide, you will know exactly how to delete multiple sheets in Google Sheets in just a few clicks.
Let’s get started, shall we?
Delete Multiple Sheets in Google Sheets: Step-by-Step Instructions
The easiest way to delete multiple sheets in Google Sheets is by selecting and deleting them. This straightforward approach allows you to remove several sheets at once without any complicated extra steps.
In this section, we will walk you through how to delete multiple selected sheets in Google Sheets with simple step-by-step instructions.
To help explain the process of deleting multiple tabs, we will use an example Google Sheets file with several sample sheets titled “Sheet1”, “Sheet2”, “Sheet3”, etc. By following this example, you’ll learn hands-on how to select and remove multiple unnecessary sheets from your own Google Sheets files.
Here is what our sample worksheet looks like:
Now that we have our sample data ready. Let’s jump into the hands-on aspect of this guide, shall we?
Step 1: Click the Sheet You Want to Select
To start, click on the sheet tab at the bottom of the Google Sheets document you want to delete. This selects the first sheet. For our example, we will choose Sheet 1.
Step 2: Hold the CTRL or CMD Button on Your Keyboard
After clicking on the first tab, hold down either the CTRL button (on Windows) or the CMD button (on Mac) on your keyboard. Keep holding this key moving forward.
Step 3: While Holding CTRL/CMD, Click the Tab of the Next sheet You Want to Select
With CTRL/CMD still held down, click on the next sheet tab you want to delete. This “adds” that sheet to your selection.
Step 4: Repeat Step 3 to Select Additional Sheet Tabs you Want to Delete
Continue to keep CTRL/CMD held as you use your mouse to click and select additional sheet tabs. You can select multiple tabs in a row this way.
Step 5: Right-click One of the Selected Tabs
After highlighting all the sheets you want to delete simultaneously, the next thing you want to do is right-click directly on one of those selected sheet tabs.
Step 6: Click “Delete sheet”
After right-clicking on the selected sheets, you’ll be presented with a list of options. From those options, click on the option for “Delete.” This action should delete all the currently highlighted sheet tabs.
Step 7: Click OK to confirm
Once you click on the option for Delete, a popup will appear to confirm you want to delete all selected sheets. Click the OK button in this popup box.
After you confirm the sheets you want to delete, all selected sheet tabs will be immediately removed. Your spreadsheet will now only show the remaining undeleted sheet tabs.
Here is what our spreadsheet looks like after deleting the sheets we selected earlier:
Move the Sheets You Need to a New Workbook
Earlier, we reviewed how to easily select and delete multiple Google Sheets tabs using the CTRL/CMD selection trick. However, that isn’t the only way to delete multiple sheets in Google Sheets.
In the next section, we will show you another way you can delete multiple sheets in Google Sheets, which is also straightforward.
This method entails moving the sheets you need to a new workbook.
The key here is to move the important sheets you want to keep into a new spreadsheet file.
While this may not be as straightforward as directly deleting multiple sheets, this workflow provides more precision.
Using this method, you can choose exactly which sheets to keep by moving them out. Then, you can delete the original file containing all the outdated, unnecessary tabs you want gone.
For example, suppose you have a Google Sheets workbook containing a “Student Scores” sheet plus various other sheets you now want to remove, keeping only the Student Scores sheet.
Here is how to move that sheet into a new workbook and delete the other existing sheets in the original document.
Step 1: Right-click on the Student Scores
To start, open the Google Sheets file containing the “Student Scores” sheet you want to save and the other sheets you wish to remove. Then, right-click directly on the “Student Scores” sheet tab at the bottom.
Step 2: Go to the Copy to option
After right-clicking on the sheet you want to move to a new spreadsheet, you’ll be presented with different options. From those options, you want to click on the one that says “Copy to.” This action will launch a sub-menu.
Step 3: Click on ‘New spreadsheet’
In the “Copy to” sub-menu, select New spreadsheet”. Choosing this will copy the Student scores sheet into a new separate spreadsheet document.
If you followed the steps exactly as we showed you above, you should get a pop-up message that looks like this:
This shows we have successfully copied the Student scores sheet to a new spreadsheet. To access the new spreadsheet, all you need to do is click on Open spreadsheet. This will usher you to the new spreadsheet housing the Student scores sheet you just copied.
Here is what the new spreadsheet looks like:
Once you have copied the “Student Scores” sheet to a new spreadsheet, you can safely delete the original Google Sheets document containing the unwanted sheets.
Before deleting, double-check that the saved “Student Scores” sheet does not contain any formulas or references relying on the sheets you’re about to delete. As long as the copied sheet stands alone, it will remain intact after you trash the original file.
Additionally, you have the option to copy the sheet you want to save into an existing Google Sheets workbook instead of a new one.
To do this, in step 3, choose the “Existing spreadsheet” option instead of “New spreadsheet.”
Google Sheets will let you pick which spreadsheet file to copy the single sheet into. The process works the same – you are just placing the saved sheet into a spreadsheet you already use rather than creating a fresh dedicated document for it.
Either way, once that important “Student Scores” sheet is safely copied elsewhere, deleting the whole original file removes all the other unneeded sheets in one swift action. This method lets you neatly organise your workbooks while removing sheets in bulk.
Note: One major caveat with this approach is that you must move the sheets you want to keep out individually. So, assuming you need to save multiple sheets from the original file, you would have to go through these steps repeatedly, copying each essential sheet into its own new spreadsheet before deleting the original.
So, while this works fantastic for preserving a single most important worksheet, it can get tedious if you have to copy several sheets into a new spreadsheet from a larger set.
On the plus side, once you copy a sheet over to a new workbook, you have an automatic backup saved safely away even as you delete the original.
We actually like that this process creates a preserved second copy of any sheet you want to keep.
So, should something ever happen to the new workbook containing your copied sheet, you could always reference the original spreadsheet from Google Drive.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, while Google Sheets doesn’t have a built-in “delete multiple sheets” option, there are a couple of straightforward workarounds that allow you to easily delete multiple sheets in Google Sheets at once.
Both the CTRL/click selection method and the copy-to-delete preservation technique make it simple to mass-delete unnecessary Google Sheets tabs without tedious, repetitive clicks.
Now that you know how to quickly and efficiently delete multiple sheets in Google Sheets, you can keep your spreadsheets neat and organised. No more clutter from old sheets or duplicates crowding up your document.
Whether you want to do some spring cleaning on an outdated workbook or archive only your most important current data, you have the tools to delete multiple sheets in one smooth action.
Remember, the key options to delete multiple sheets in Google Sheets include:
- Using the CTRL/CMD click action to select then delete unwanted sheets
- Copying essential sheets to other spreadsheets before deleting the original file
After reading today’s guide, you should feel empowered next time you need to mass-remove Google Sheets tabs.
Let us know if you have any other questions on the best shortcuts for cleaning up your Google Sheets projects.