How to Change SharePoint Permissions When List View Threshold is Exceeded

Open your SharePoint document library, click the gear icon (Settings) in the top right corner, and select 'Library settings'. Click 'More library settings' if prompted.

Scroll down to the Columns section and click on 'Indexed columns'. Click 'Create a new index', choose a column you frequently use to filter documents (like 'Created' or a custom category), and save.

Return to the Library Settings page, scroll down to the Views section, and click 'Create view'. Select 'Standard View' and give it a recognizable name.

In the Filter section of the view configuration, select 'Show items only when the following is true'. Choose the column you just indexed and set a rule (e.g., date ranges) ensuring the total results will be strictly under 5,000 items.

In the same view settings, disable any complex grouping, remove unnecessary sorting rules, and uncheck extra displayed columns to reduce the query load further. Save the view.

Switch your document library to this newly created filtered view. You should now be able to select items and modify permissions without exceeding the threshold.

Instead of modifying permissions on a per-document basis, group related documents into folders and apply unique permissions only at the folder level.

If you must update items individually, select a small batch of files (e.g., 500 at a time) to modify permissions rather than attempting to update the entire library simultaneously.

Create multiple new document libraries categorized by department, year, or access requirements. Move files from the oversized library to the new ones to ensure no single library continuously hits the 5,000-item threshold.