Can I repair a broken linked field?

[Pam_Siebert]

Hi. My nonprofit is using an Airtable base to support and manage data from youth teams that are conducting service-learning projects. 

I have a table called "Teams" that holds all the data about each team. Then I created a form through Fillout.com where they can create new records in a table called "Project Plans." The first thing they do when filling out the form is to select their Team name, i.e. a field in the Project Plan table that links back to the Teams table.

The problem is that before I understood how linked records work (creates a field in the table where it's created, but also a corresponding one back on the table that it links to),  I would notice the new field in table it was linking to and thought- what the heck is this extra field here? And then deleted it.

I now need to create lookup and rollup fields in the Teams table, but have broken the link by deleting the corresponding field there. The "Teams" field in the "Project Plan" table still shows the team name.

Is there any way to 're-map' to a field in the Teams table? Or do I have to start over with a new linked field and copy the data? (In which case, I need to adjust my form to the new field, which I really hate to do.)

Hoping this makes sense. Thanks for any insights! 

[Dan_Montoya]

In your "linked" table you should have the abandoned field stillIn this picture you can see the 2 fields that were linked.  I deleted 1 field from "table 3".  The data converted from a linked record to a plain text.  When you relink, you should be able to use that data to restore where the data was linked previously.

[TheTimeSavingCo · Accepted solution]

Adding on to Dan's solution: to relink, right click that abandoned field and click "Edit field", then change it to a "Link to another record" field.  Select the table you want to link it to and you should be good to go!

[Pam_Siebert]

Thank you!

(And this explains so much, LOL.)

[Pam_Siebert]

Thank you!!