How can you keep the Symbology > Unique Values > Field 1 from picking a field? It's usually the wrong field!

[CathyWilson2]

Steps to recreate:
Go to the Symbology of a feature class. Select Unique Values. Field 1 defaults to anything with the word "Name" in it or it defaults to the ID field. If it picks the ID field, you have to wait for it to list each value with their own color. Then when it is done, you can click the drop-down box and select the field that YOU want.

Real world example:
I have a feature layer that represents tifs and has over 500 records. It has a FileName field with the file name of the tif. Each record is unique. The Symbology pane picks this field. What I want is my QC field.

I'm using ArcGIS Pro 2.9.5.

[MapGrrl]

I would recommend opening the Fields view for the layer (right-click Layer in Contents > Data Design > Fields) then disabling the Visibility (check box on the left) for all fields except those fields you Need or Want. 

Then, when you go to Symbology, only the Visible fields (that suit that symbology type) will be available, and if it's just your QC field, then it will default to that one. 

[CathyWilson2]

Thanks for the info. That will only work if the field I want to symbolize is the only field I want to see or if it is the first in the list. Hmm, I wonder if I can make it be the first field in the list of fields.

[CathyWilson2]

That works to drag it in the Fields list to the top. But these solutions would require me adjusting the field info on every layer that I want to symbolize. Better for Esri to have the Field 1 dropbox start out blank.