SharePoint has
resource throttles and limits that govern the amount of data and throughput that can be managed. The List View Threshold is by default, approximately 5000 items, and is set to allow users to work with large lists, but keep good performance. There are three main ways to work with the List View Threshold:
- For all versions of SharePoint, manage the number of items returned using indexing, filtering, folders, and offline data.
- For Server versions of SharePoint, use an administrator scheduled Daily Time Window where limits are raised.
- For Server versions of SharePoint, a network administrator can raise the limit of the List View Threshold.
For SharePoint Online, this limit can't be changed, and is in place 24 x 7 to allow users on shared tenants to always have good performance on queries. To work around the limit, we've outlined some actions you can do to keep your queries within the limit.
- Index and filter Planning and, creating indexes and using them in filters can keep the number of items to under the List View Threshold. For more info, see Add and index to a SharePoint column or Use filtering to modify a SharePoint view.
- Using folders to organize You can use folders to organize data effectively, though you should be careful not to have a query on the folder return more than the List View Threshold. For more info, see Create a folder in a list or Create a folder in a document library.
- Using Document center site A Document center is a template that can be used to create a site with features geared for document search, storage, and manipulation. With the right permissions, you can create a site or subsite with this template. For more info, see Use a Document Center site.
- Synced and offline data Taking data offline allows you to use Excel or Access to query your list data without limits. When you sync a document folder, you can work locally on your computer, and changes are updated to the server automatically. For more info, see Set up your computer to sync SharePoint Server or Sync SharePoint files with the new OneDrive sync client.
With SharePoint Server servers (SharePoint 2016, 2013, and 2010), the 5000 item List View Threshold is the default as well. However, because there's more control by network administrators, a
Daily Time Window can be set where the limits are effectively removed, allowing large queries as well as other data intensive operations to be done. This time is usually in the evening when most users are not on the system. The administrator can also choose to
raise the limit if appropriate.
The last choice, also with Server versions of SharePoint, is to
change the limit. This is risky, since a larger limit increases the possibility of affecting the performance for some or all users.