SharePoint Online - document library with sub-folders and 5000 view limit

Question

Hi there,

So I need a definitive answer to a question. I am in the process of moving a customers data to SharePoint Online. For the sake of familiarity, and also to avoid the 5000 view limit threshold, I was planning on using sub folders within my libraries.

However I have moved a couple of the smaller libraries, and the view limit threshold does not appear to be working in the way I had read.

As an example, one library has 600 folders and 4,500 files. All files are located in sub folders. However the library settings page is reporting that I am near my view limit, and am using 4,500 of the 5,000 available items in my view.

How is this correct? I had read, multiple times that items inside of sub folders do not count towards this limit. Am I mistaken?

I was planning on moving a folder with 50,000 items over the weekend, however no single folder contains anywhere near 5,000 items so I thought I was free and clear!

Thanks in advance,

David

Answer 1

Hi David. The list view limit on a library is 5,000 items. This is a combination of files and folders and applies to all files and folders in the library. If you go over that limit that some admin functions of a list are limited such as breaking permissions inheritance. There is also another limit that is not so well known: 5,000 item limit on a single folder - if there are more than 5,000 items in the root of a folder this can cause further complications for example some file listing operations outside of the browser (such as through WebDAV) will be impacted and show no files.

The OneDrive for Business sync tool has a hard limit of 5,000 items for team site document libraries. If you go over that limit then the sync tool will not work.

If you plan to use the sync tool, then don't go over the 5,000 item limit. If you don't plan to use the sync tool then you are fine to exceed the limit but make sure you perform admin functions such as indexing options, breaking permissions inheritance before you go over 5,000 items.

Myles Jeffery | Thinkscape Limited

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Answer 2

Thanks to everybody for all your help. It's much appreciated. Due to this limitation (which admittedly is well documented) we won't be pursuing a full file server migration, only a partial one for things like Marketing and Management drives. It may be that this is pursued further once the company has organised their data more effectively.

I'll be honest, I thought this limitation was always about the number of items literally in your current view, but now I understand that the default 'view' enumerates all objects. Thanks again.

Answer 3

David

No, subfolders do count. Myles even said that so, 18,000 items in a single document library is over the 5000 item count list view threshold

YOu can make it work if you index your columns and set your custom views up, but if you are not going to do that, then you need to break up your document libraries and keep them under 5000

Answer 4

To just add to what Myles has said

The best thing to do is when you log into the SharePoint site, click on the gear on top right and go to Site Contents. That shows you all your list/libraries. It also shows you the item count. That is where you want to watch and not go over 5000 items. The 5000 list view threshold is on the Document library. Anything you put in there is an item and does count. So, Sub-folders DO count.

You just need to keep that item count under 5000.

So, the best thing to do is make more Root folders. Right there when you clicked on the gear, and went to Site Contents... Click "Add an App" and add another document library. Now you have another place for 5000 more items. Repeat the process. You should be breaking your stuff up anyways as you do not want to have to sync all that stuff down to your machine. There is no selective sync on the sync client, so each use will have to sync the entire library. If you can break it up, you can give users the option of syncing that library or not.

Now, if you are using just the "OneDrive for Business" space, you can get the new NexGen Sync client and it will bypass the 20,000 item limit. This means you can sync a lot of items. Plus the new NexGen Sync client has selective SYnc so users can choose which subfolders they want to download, But, even if you do this, you still have the 5000 item "List view threshold"

Hope this helps

Answer 5

Thanks for the response, very useful information.

We are not planning on using the sync tool. I think, judging by your response that what we are planning will indeed work. Can you confirm that, for example, a single library containing 18,000 items in various subfolders (with no single folder exceeding 5,000 items) will be viewable using a browser and the default AllItems view?

Thanks again :)