SharePoint Document Issues

Fix OneDrive and SharePoint List View Threshold Sharing Issues

Amos Gikunda Oct 8, 2026 868 views

Question details

The user is unable to share folders or files in a large OneDrive for Business account containing over one million items due to list view thresholds and folder sharing limits.

How to Manage the OneDrive and SharePoint List View Threshold

Product: OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Attempting to share folders or files from a highly populated OneDrive or SharePoint library containing millions of objects.
Observed behavior: Folder sharing operations fail or behave unexpectedly because the number of items exceeds the 5,000-item view threshold or the 50,000 subitem folder sharing limit.

Before you start

Before making structural changes, analyze your OneDrive or SharePoint library structure to identify which specific folders exceed the 5,000-item view limit or 50,000-item sharing limit.

Solution 1Recommended

Create Filtered Views with Indexed Columns

Prevent list view threshold errors by indexing library columns and filtering your document views to display fewer than 5,000 items at a time.

SharePoint has a hard limit of 5,000 items per view query to protect database performance. While you can store millions of files, you cannot display more than 5,000 at once without filtering.

Navigate to Library Settings

Open your SharePoint library or OneDrive online, click the Gear icon in the top right, and select 'Library settings'.

Create an Indexed Column

Scroll down and click 'Indexed columns'. Click 'Create a new index', select a commonly used column like 'Modified' or 'Created', and click 'Create'.

Modify the Library View

Return to the Library settings and scroll down to the 'Views' section. Click on your default view to edit it.

Apply Filters

In the 'Filter' section, select 'Show items only when the following is true'. Choose the indexed column you just created and set conditions (e.g., date ranges) so that the view returns fewer than 5,000 items, then click 'OK'.

Create Filtered Views with Indexed Columns

Indexing Limits: You must create indexed columns before your library exceeds 20,000 items. If your library is already massive, you may need a global admin to index columns via PowerShell.

Solution 2

Restructure Folders and Migrate Content

Reorganize your files into separate document libraries or SharePoint sites to bypass the 50,000 subitem sharing limit.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Can I manually increase the 5,000-item view threshold in SharePoint Online?

No, the 5,000-item list view threshold is a hard limit in SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business designed to maintain server performance. It cannot be changed or increased through built-in admin settings.

What is the folder sharing limit in OneDrive for Business?

You can share a folder that contains up to 50,000 subitems. This count includes all files, subfolders, and items nested deeply within that folder. If the folder contains more than 50,000 items, the sharing operation will fail.

Does the view threshold mean I can only store 5,000 files in a SharePoint library?

No. A single SharePoint document library can store up to 30 million files. The 5,000-item threshold only applies to the number of items that can be displayed or queried at one time in a single view.

Will putting all my files into subfolders fix the view threshold error?

Yes, to an extent. Organizing files into subfolders helps because opening a folder acts as a filtered view. However, if any single folder contains more than 5,000 items directly at its root level, you will still encounter the view threshold error when opening it.

Document & File Issues