Sections in columns don't reclaim unused space

I have lots of sections in 2 columns.
If I delete a section, then I expect the subsequent sections to move back without leaving a gap.

(I would upload an screenshot and attach an example, but I don’t have enough points)

Can’t reproduce your problem, maybe you don’t delete the paragraph mark in the section.

To make sure:

  • display non-printing characters with ViewNonprinting Characters and ViewText Boundaries (grey borders will appear around your sections)
  • delete all text in section
  • press Del key when cursor just precedes the “inverted P” (pilcrow sign) denoting the paragraph end (resulting in a line break), otherwise an empty paragraph remains in the section and uses “above” and “below” spacing

The section will disappear and following text will flow upwards.

If this is the anwer you expected, please accept it by clicking on the check mark at left and close the question for community benefit.

Apologies. I was using tables inside columns. And not sections.
Even when I deleted the table, the text did not flow upwards, but remained on the following page.

My remark still holds if you leave any “paragraph mark” where the table was. This is why I always work with visible non printing characters. I don’t think either there is incompatibility in document format between LO versions, at least when numbers are not too far apart.

I managed to workaround my problem by recreating the document from scratch. It was created with a previous version of LibreOffice.