SharePoint - "The query cannot be completed because the number of lookup columns it contains exceeds the lookup column threshold".

Question

Hello,

A user of ours is having issues with the Tracker element of SharePoint with the error: "The query cannot be completed because the number of lookup columns it contains exceeds the lookup column threshold".

This wasn't an issue prior to SharePoint 'updating', unfortunately I'm not really close with this tracker or SharePoint site other than managing user permissions.

We don't have on-premises SharePoint and is managed Online as part of Microsoft 365. I've checked online and found these suggestions:

• Add a view in SharePoint that only contains the columns needing to be updated/modified. The limit is 12, have to keep it under that.
• This limit is 12 for SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server 2019. Since you have counted the lookup columns in your document library and found that there are 12, it is likely that this is the cause of the error.
• To resolve this issue, you can either remove some of the lookup columns or change the way you are querying the data to use fewer lookup columns. Another option is to use indexed columns and filtering to keep the view size for the list to 5,000 items or less.

I have suggested the below links to try and resolve the issue:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/use-filtering-to-modify-a-sharepoint-view-3d8efc52-0808-4731-8f9b3dfaeacea3d4#:~:text=If%20the%20columns%20that%20you,it%20to%20filter%20the%20view

https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/add-an-index-to-a-list-or-library-column-f3f00554-b7dc-44d1-a2ed-d477eac463b0

Are the suggestions viable and worth giving a go?

Also worth noting, the user tried to change on a filter that has only 12 columns and the same issue still occurred. Is there anything else we can try?

Thanks,

Ozan

Answer 1

Hi Ozan,

Thanks for posting in the community. We are happy to help you.

The articles you posted are generally for list items over 5000. However, based on the error message, this occurs when the number of lookup columns exceeds 12 in the current view. Note that lookup columns also include all "Managed Metadata Fields" and "Person Fields". In this case, I suggest you edit the lookup column, untick unnecessary lookup fields (fields in "Add additional columns from source list"), and then check again.

For your reference:
List query column lookup threshold error

Appreciate your understanding and patience.

Sincerely,

George | Microsoft Community Moderator