Forum Discussion
Problems searching Metadata
As a company we are currently transferring documents through onto SharePoint via Sharegate so that we can automatically add Metatags from the folder structures we have on our fileshare.
We were hoping to go with a flat folder structure across several Libraries however we have come across the 5000 document limit before we have even done 5% of our documents. As is seems that we cannot use a flat folder structure, I have 2 questions that concern me/would like advice on?
1 - Is there anyway to show as a flat folder structure with more than 20,000 documents in the library?
2 - Will Metadata work on a library that contains more than 20,000 documents?
Any Advice or help on this would be great!
Thanks
- spucelik
Microsoft
Luke...moving to a no folder structure is not only advised but recommended to take advantage of the metadata in the libraries. The 5000 list item "view" limit is just that, how many items will be returned in the default view. The library can hold millions of documents and you can surface them through SharePoint search, just be sure to se the default view filters to return less than 5K documents. Try using the created date of today or something that is meaningful for the library.
If you do need to use folders, generally for security isolation, then in the advanced settings for the library you can choose the show without folders option. Even though there are folders then you can remove them from the display. Keeping in mind that the 5000 list item view threshold will still be enforced.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for replying. How is it possible to have a flat folder structure with more than 5000 documents in where you are able to see some files? Then I can search via the Metadata? Or does this mean that any view that has over 5000 cannot be used and therefore I would need to implement several views that will come under 5000?
Thanks
- spucelik
Luke...couple things to consider:
- A folder is simply an item in a list/library. Best practice is to use it for security (one level only) and NOT for organizing documents...hence metadata.
- Metadata definitely replaces a folder structure for organization and search.
With that when you create a new view in a library, in the "Folders" section you can "Show all items without folders" view. (See screen shot) This will present all the documents buried in folders, without showing the folders, while honoring security settings that may be on a folder.
You'll still need to apply a filter to the view that will limit the results to under 5K. Knowing you're library and metadata helps determine what filter to apply to limit the results. Generally a safe piece of metadata you can use is the "Created" = [Today]. Hopefully people aren't creating 5K documents a day.
