Symptom
When trying to delete an attribute, Developer informs the user that other objects depend on it and therefore it cannot be deleted. A search for dependent objects shows only logical table and system hierarchies that should not prevent an attribute to be deleted.
Cause
The attribute might have system managed objects that depend on it, that are not directly visible to the user. This can be the case if the attribute was used on a document and derived elements have been created with. Removing the attribute from the dataset of the document will not automatically clear the derived elements.
Action
Verify if derived elements or other system managed objects depend on the attribute.
Therefore, enable the 'Display managed objects' option in the Search Editor:
Subsequently, dependent system managed objects are returned in the search results that prevent deletion of the attribute.
You must manually remove the derived element from the containing documents in order to delete the attribute from your project.
