opened 11:21AM - 29 Aug 25 UTC
type/bug
### Which Umbraco version are you using?
v16.1.1
### Bug summary
Tested a v1…3 → v16 upgrade. The pages all failed to publish on upgrade and it’s because each page has a couple of dropdowns which are optional. For most pages in this site this value hasn’t been set by the user which is fine in v13 - you just get a blank dropdown.
In v16 dropdowns are mandatory / default to the first item - this isn’t great IMHO - at the very least there should still be a setting on this so that you can enable / disable a not set dropdown or even allow an empty value (which isn't possible).
I think it's quite usual to allow dropdowns to be optional (just like you can leave a text field blank) - so this seems to be an odd step
### Specifics
Bug occurs with an upgrade from v13 -> v16 but it also is an issue with the functionality of this basic data type I believe. Null / empty should be allowed.
### Steps to reproduce
For v13 - create a doc type with a flexible drop down value - add some values.
Add to a page this drop down - have some pages where the drop down isn't set.
Upgrade to v16.
OR - just try and add an empty / not set value in a clean v16 site with a new (in)flexible drop down.
<img width="688" height="145" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/837b1372-aa11-45b2-865d-50e5cbf4b7fc" />
### Expected result / actual result
Would expect the old behaviour that user doesn't have to select a value.
Or that this is an option on the data type (this is probably better).