Lookupfields not showing up in customlist sharepoint 2010

Question

I have a custom list on dev-int environment, now I saved it as a template and moved it over to the dev-vm environment and created a list (Listl1) based on the template. Now this list consists of few lookupfields. I have also created the needed lists in which the lookup columns resides, but when I open this Listl1 (add new item) it does not have values in the lookup fields.

So do I need to delete the column which are lookups and create new column and point to the respective lookup columns in the lookuplist? Is this the standard approach? Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Lookup uses internal ID to do the mapping to the lookup list. Lookup list will have different ID in the other environment which will break lookups.

Disclaimer: my answer is not based on factual knowledge, but in generic understanding of how these things tend to work in SharePoint. You will probably find the list ID used for the mapping somewhere in the lookup field properties if you look deep enough (object model) :)