SharePoint online - "The specified list is invalid"

Question

Hi,

We are getting a lot of users reporting an error when trying to browse a folder on Sharepoint: "The Specified list is invalid" see screenshot below:

They are able to get round this by refreshing the page but would like it fixed. Can anyone help?

Answer 1

Hello,

Thank you for posting in Microsoft Community.

I'm sorry to hear that you are experiencing this issue on SharePoint.

As you mentioned a lot of users in your organization are experiencing this issue, may I know if they use same browser or different browsers to access that folder on SharePoint? If same browser, please try a different browser such as Edge, Chrome and Firefox.

If issue persists in different browsers, may I know if there are more than 5000 docs in your document library?

If you go to Library Settings > More library settings, do you see error message saying

"The number of items in this list exceeds the list view threshold, which is 5000 items. Tasks that cause excessive server load (such as those involving all list items) are currently prohibited."

If yes, I'm afraid the original issue may be related to this list view threshold error because your library has more than 5000 docs.

In this situation, you may try moving some documents to a different library to drop below 5000 docs. Or you may refer to the suggestions in this support article Manage large lists and libraries - Microsoft Support After that, check if you can access that folder on SharePoint.

However, if your document library doesn't have more than 5000 docs but the issue persists, I'm afraid it is a temporarily server-side issue which needs to be investigated from the backend side via remote assistance and collect background logs.

As this Forum community has limited resources, the backend support team there has more permission than us, they have more resources to investigate the issue from the backend, they have Escalate channel to escalate your issue to check more and collect log reports for the root cause.

In this situation, we sincerely recommend that your Microsoft 365 admin, can follow the steps in this article and create a support ticket to contact online support. The support team there has more permission than us, they can help you remotely and collect logs. This would be the most efficient way to handle this case for you.

Note: To create a support ticket, you need to have Microsoft 365 admin privileges, and if you're not an admin for your Office 365 organization, contact the admin of creating a new ticket.

Reference: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support

Please accept my apologies for redirecting you to the related team support, as the moderators in this community have limited resources to verify the backend information and to get the quick and better assistance, we requested for this.

I'm sorry and I apologize for that.

Your understanding and patience will be greatly appreciated. I hope you're staying safe and well!

Sincerely,

Tina | Microsoft Community Moderator

[Updated by Tina Chen MSFT on 1:44 PM, Thursday, January 25, 2024(UTC)]

Answer 2

Hi Tina,

Thanks very much for you reply, I have checked the library settings as you recomended

If issue persists in different browsers, may I know if there are more than 5000 docs in your document library?

If you go to Library Settings > More library settings, do you see error message saying

"The number of items in this list exceeds the list view threshold, which is 5000 items. Tasks that cause excessive server load (such as those involving all list items) are currently prohibited."

If yes, I'm afraid the original issue may be related to this list view threshold error because your library has more than 5000 docs.

All of the libraries are above the 5000 item threshold, one of the libraries has 1447384 items

Answer 3

Dear VIPER Daniel,

Thank you for posting back.

I understand that you may have concern of why only that specific document library has this issue because all other libraries are above the 5000 items threshold.

Honestly, I searched a lot but didn't find official article explaining why the error "The specified list is invalid" appears in document library.

I believe the problem is related to the backend, I would recommend you try raising a support ticket from Microsoft 365 Admin Center and then let the related team help you further investigate this issue from back end. They may collect background logs when the error message "The specified list is invalid" appears, and help you find the root cause of this issue. This would be the most efficient way to handle this case for you.

For reference: Get support - Microsoft 365 admin | Microsoft Learn

Thanks for your cooperation and understanding!

Hope you have a nice day.

Sincerely,

Tina | Microsoft Community Moderator

Answer 4

No problem, thanks very much for your help Tina.

I will raise a support ticket in the Admin center

Answer 5

You are welcome.😊 I appreciate your kind words.

If you find my reply helpful, could you also use the feedback tool below my reply to send your feedback for us (pictured below), I really appreciate it.

Best wishes,

Tina