Explore how do I overcome the SharePoint 5000 item limit threshold with detailed strategies. This guide offers actionable solutions and tips for managing large lists and optimizing performance.
The "5000 item limit threshold" in Microsoft SharePoint is a restriction that prevents a single list view from displaying more than 5,000 items at once. This means that if a list contains over 5,000 items, users can only view up to 5,000 items in any given single view. This limit is designed to maintain performance and prevent slow loading times when handling large datasets.
So, this threshold does not limit the number of documents your libraries can store but rather how many can be displayed at once. No SharePoint document library view can show more than 5,000 items at a time. SharePoint Online can actually store up to 30 million items in a single list. Here’s a breakdown of some key threshold limits:
| Threshold Type | Limit |
| List View Threshold | 5,000 items |
| Lookup Column Threshold | 12 columns |
| Total List Capacity | 30 million items |
When you access that library, you will not be able to see more than 5,000 items on the page as the query will run into the limit threshold. Besides, you will face some problems when processing a large document library. For example, renaming a folder and moving files within the library will take a longer time.
What's worse, on the technical aspect, every time you access your library and perform actions in it, the servers have to do a lot of processing and querying. A a result, the burden on the servers increases dramatically.
Some users might ask, "Is it possible to change the SharePoint Online List View Threshold?" The answer is no. It is not possible to change the list view threshold in SharePoint Online. The limit of 5,000 items is fixed and enforced by Microsoft to ensure optimal performance in SharePoint Online. However, there are several workarounds to address this limitation, such as:
Regularly review your library's contents and identify items that are no longer needed. This may include outdated documents, duplicates, or items that are no longer relevant to your organization's goals.
Another simple way to avoid exceeding the 5,000-item limit threshold is to avoid storing all your files in a single library. You can distribute content across multiple sites and document libraries based on the file type. To create a new document library, follow these steps:
1. Navigate to the team site where you want to create the library.
2. On the menu bar, click New, then select Document library.
3. In the Create new document library dialog box, choose whether to start with a blank library, use an existing library, or select a template.
4. In the Name field, provide a name and description for the library to help others find and use it.
5. After entering the name and description, click Create to finalize the process.
To improve search performance in large SharePoint libraries, creating indexes on columns that are frequently used in search queries is a good strategy. Here's how to create an index in SharePoint:
1. Go to the Document Library: Navigate to the document library where you want to create an index.
2. Open Library Settings: Click on the Settings gear icon in the top-right corner and select Library settings (or List settings).
3. Access Indexed Columns: Under the Columns section, click on Indexed columns.
4. Create a New Index: Click Create a new index. Choose the column you want to index from the list of available columns. You can index columns that are used for filtering or sorting, such as date, author, or category.
5. Configure the Index: Select the column(s) you want to index. You can create a compound index if needed (indexing two columns together for more refined searches).
6. Save the Index: Click Create to finalize the index.
If you have a library that significantly exceeds the 5000 item limit, consider breaking it down into smaller, more manageable sub-libraries. This can improve performance and make it easier to manage your content.
To make it easier, you can just move files from the large library to another smaller one. For this task, navigate to the large library, select the desired files, click "Move to" in the command bar, then choose the smaller library as the destination and select "Move here".
Or, you can use MultCloud, a professional cloud to cloud transfer tool. It can not only directly copy files from one SharePoint Library to another Library, but also permit you to transfer files from SharePoint to other cloud drives, like OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Workspace, etc, so that you can offload some of the burden from SharePoint.
To transfer files from SharePoint to another cloud, just sign up an account, add those two clouds into MultCloud, choose SharePoint specific folder as the source, while another cloud as the destination, and then start the transfer process. That will not go through your local device storage, but performed directly online.
By implementing these strategies, you can effectively manage large SharePoint libraries and overcome the 5,000-item limit threshold while maintaining optimal performance and usability.