Manage Large Lists and Libraries in SharePoint Online Easily

In this write-up, we are giving a complete overview of how to manage large lists and libraries in SharePoint Online service.

Many organizations use SharePoint to collaborate during projects, communicate via intranet sites, and store critical documents as well. However, when data volume grows outside the regular limit of SharePoint. 

To keep SharePoint in a healthy state, it is important that   We can’t be sure that a list is actually large or just appears so. For that, the best way is to check for the official limits as prescribed by Microsoft.

Understand the SharePoint Online Limits of Lists and Libraries

File size limit: 250 GB per file

Library Item Limit: 30 million items per library.

List View Threshold: 5000 items per view.

Although these are not hard-bound limits, it is still recommended that administrators and organizations adhere to them. The main reason these limits are put here is to ensure optimal performance and usability across the SharePoint application. Next up, we teach you the best way to set up and plan for your library.

Plan for Managing Large Lists and Libraries in SharePoint

Organize data in folders and use metadata logically.

Create folders: This is preferable to a simple file-style arrangement. It can reduce the number of items that are visible at the root level, reducing confusion. Moreover, user-level performance also receives a boost as the time it takes to find a particular item reduces significantly. 

However, don’t make the mistake of overdoing the folder hierarchy. As if a site-to-site migration scenario pops up these multilayer folders are the most common cause of data loss.

Use Metadata: Often ignored metadata can help out during document tagging. This gives room for dynamic views and makes searching for a particular item faster than before. Likewise, make appropriate choices while selecting the metadata. Not all are equally useful for example document titles are better suited to find objects than version numbers. 

Create Indexed columns: Indexing goes a long way in improving the performance of filtering and sorting operations. A tip for admins read the user behavior and ask for feedback then, apply indexes on those columns that are most used to construct custom views. Nevertheless, some data types are immune to indexing here is a list:
Multiple lines of text 

• Choice (multi-valued) 
• Calculated 
• Hyperlink or Picture 
• Custom Columns 
• Person or Group (multi-valued) (Lookup) 
• External data

Other than these all column types can be indexed.

Optimize Performance with the Help of Custom Views

Custom view creation can help deal with many of the SharePoint large list and large library problems: The two viewing types are. 

Filtered Views: Customize views to display only necessary items by applying filters. This helps in staying within the 5,000-item limit and enhances performance.

Paginated Views: Enable pagination to load items in chunks, reducing the load on the browser and server.

Other than viewing upgrades admins can shift the earlier data in the SharePoint site to a new one. 

Bypass SharePoint Online List and Library Limits with Easy Transfer 

As this is a bulk movement of SharePoint data start off by checking all existing libraries and cleaning the ones that are no longer required.

Instead of moving every item at once take a step-by-step staged approach. With this sort of approach, admins can maintain the existing site while building up the target.

Manual movement of SharePoint data can be quite cumbersome, so it is better to rely on SysTools Sharepoint Migration software. It is specially designed to assist organizations in all such scenarios. Like we saw during the preparation of the SharePoint Migration checklist when we move items from one SharePoint list to another. Like the With an intuitive UI and easy-to-follow steps, anyone with an adequate permission set can set up an automated inter-site transfer. 

• Open the Tool > Select Endpoints as Office 365.
• Pick Sites as the Workload and Apply date filter.
• Perform source and target admin validation.
• Map Users and Sites.
• Preview > Select > Validate > Migrate.  

Advanced way to Manage Large Lists and Libraries in SharePoint

Establish Content Organization Rules: Use PowerAutomate Flows to reroute any new data that is added to a list or library that is near its maximum threshold. Once created these flows work on their own.

Change to Morden SharePoint view and breach the legacy 5000 threshold limit. Although this is possible, admins should not attempt this unless absolutely necessary. As going back to the classic view can trigger a data loss event.

Conclusion 

We gave users complete tips on how to manage large lists and libraries in SharePoint Online. With this, administrators no longer have to worry about the overexpansion of resources on their M365 Intranet. This task is not easy, as admins have to take into account the planning of the organization while ensuring that no existing SharePoint feature breakdown occurs.

A way in which admins can simplify SharePoint resource management is to make a new site and shift excess data there. For that, the tool discussed earlier is the best possible choice.