Increasing The Number Of Views Displayed In Sharepoint Document Libraries

Increasing the SharePoint View Threshold

What is the SharePoint View Threshold?

The SharePoint view threshold is the maximum number of items that can be displayed in a list view or document library before throttling limits are imposed. By default, SharePoint online sets this view threshold limit to 5,000 items to ensure optimal performance. When a list view contains more than 5,000 documents or list items, SharePoint will fail to display all items even if filtering is applied to reduce the overall count.

This view threshold directly impacts the number of documents visible in a SharePoint document library. End users may be unable to view all files stored in large libraries without adjusting this limit. Increasing the threshold allows more documents to be loaded within a list view at the potential cost of slower performance.

How it Affects Number of Items Displayed

With the out-of-the-box 5,000 item view threshold, SharePoint libraries and folders containing more than 5,000 documents will reach the display limit. Even if a user applies filters or sorting criteria to narrow down files, a maximum of 5,000 documents can be shown.

This behavior occurs because the view threshold places a cap on the number loaded for display purposes regardless of the actual subset resulting from view filters. Until this governance limit is increased, the full contents of larger document libraries cannot be navigated through list views in the SharePoint user interface.

Impacts on Performance

The SharePoint view threshold exists to ensure reasonable performance when loading list views and document libraries. Displaying thousands of items places additional load on the SharePoint front end, SQL database, and other supporting infrastructure.

With extremely large libraries containing hundreds of thousands of documents, maxing out the view threshold can potentially cause timeouts or impact responsiveness for other site users. As such, the limit tries to strike a balance between viewability and overall SharePoint performance.

Adjusting the View Threshold in SharePoint

Understanding Throttling Limits

SharePoint Online uses a variety of throttling limits and governance policies to ensure adequate responsiveness and availability at scale across its multi-tenant environment. The 5,000 view threshold works alongside other mechanisms like list view lookup caps and cache optimization to reduce infrastructure strain.

When increasing the max viewable documents, it is important to understand how this threshold interacts with broader throttling behaviors in SharePoint Online. For example, the overall list view lookups may still top out at 20,000 items. There are also cached data limits within Content Databases and client side object models to consider.

Using PowerShell to Increase Threshold

The only officially supported way to increase the SharePoint view threshold is via PowerShell. Admins can connect to SharePoint with the PnP PowerShell module and run scripts to alter the view limit. This allows bypassing the 5,000 visible item cap and enabling substantially more documents to be loaded within list views.

When using PowerShell to adjust throttling, it is recommended to gradually step up the view threshold while monitoring SharePoint performance. Sudden large increases can overload infrastructure capacity and result in issues for critical workloads. A phased ramp up allows properly testing the impacts at each new level.

Example PowerShell Script to Set Higher Limit

Here is an example PowerShell script that increases the SharePoint view threshold to 15,000 items:

#Import PnP PowerShell Module 
Import-Module PnP.PowerShell
  
#Connect to SharePoint Admin Site
Connect-PnPOnline -Url https://contoso-admin.sharepoint.com -Credentials [email protected]
  
#Set View Threshold to 15000 Items
Set-PnPList -Identity "Documents" -EnableThrottling $true -ThrottlingLimit 15000

This script can be adjusted to use different list URLs and view thresholds as needed. The parameter –ThrottlingLimit controls the number of items selectable for display. Care should be taken not to exceed reasonable limits for your SharePoint environment’s capacity.

Best Practices for Managing Large Lists

In addition adjusting the view item limits in SharePoint, administrators can take other steps to optimize performance of large document libraries even at higher throttling thresholds. Indexing columns, utilizing folders, and archiving older content can help improve responsiveness.

Index Columns for Faster Sorting and Filtering

Enabling column indexing in SharePoint sends documents metadata values to the search index. This greatly accelerates sorting, filtering, and other view operations even on extremely large lists. Columns like Modified Date, Document Type, Client Name which are frequently filtered and sorted should be indexed.

Running PowerShell scripts to index document library columns helps overcome some of the latency penalties associated with scaling up SharePoint view limits. Sorts and filters will complete faster despite interacting with far more list items. Just be conscious of overall search index resource demands when indexing all columns.

Use Folders to Organize Content

Breaking up massive document libraries into folders makes it easier to stay within reasonable throttling limits. Even when adjusting the view threshold higher, performance will degrade rapidly above 100K+ items. Foldering by client, matter, department or other attributes caps any individual container’s size.

Folders also aid end user productivity when navigating long lists by organizing relevant content together. The folder structure should align with common access patterns for document libraries. Balance total number of folders against depth to avoid overly complex trees.

Archive Older Content Not Needing Real-Time View

Legacy and archived documents which need retention but not regular access are ideal candidates for dedicated SharePoint document libraries. This avoids mixed content and bloating active sites with outdated material unlikely to be searched.

SharePoint Online offers configurable document lifecycle policies to automatically age out content by promoting to archive. This helps control the growth of document libraries which need regular real-time user interactivity. Archives can utilize more permissive throttling thresholds.

Summary

Key Points on Increasing SharePoint View Threshold

Adjusting the SharePoint list view limit via PowerShell allows displaying substantially more documents within the UI. But this threshold adjustment should be made gradually while assessing infrastructure capacity and performance impact.

Combining higher throttling with column indexing, folders, and archiving enables managing extremely large 100K+ document libraries without overwhelming capabilities. A balanced approach helps ensure responsiveness.

Benefits and Tradeoffs of Higher List View Limits

The main benefit of increasing the SharePoint view threshold is enhanced visibility into document libraries containing over 5,000 files. This expanded capacity enables scaling up libraries without end user access disruption.

Potential tradeoffs include slower page load times, timeouts, and increased infrastructure costs if capacity limits are exceeded. Carefully test any limit increases to avoid production performance issues or service disruption.

Recommendations for Managing Large Document Libraries

When supporting SharePoint document libraries expected to reach the default view limits, use PowerShell to gradually raise the threshold in increments of 5,000 or less. Combine this capacity increase with index columns, folders, and archiving to maintain responsiveness.

If libraries are still experiencing selective delays or bottlenecks, revert to the default throttling threshold. Significant infrastructure upgrades like SQL scaling or service plan changes may instead be required to fully resolve limits.