Excel SharePoint Multiple line property not allowing over 255 characters

Brass Contributor

I have an Excel sheet that connects to a SharePoint library with multiple columns (properties). Recently I've noticed when we try and save a sheet back to SharePoint with a multiple line property containing over 255 characters it will not save until I lower it under 255. I don't see any reason why this would be and there does not seem to be any settings I can play with.

Is this just a hard limitation that it not documented?

Thanks for your help!

Sean

2 Replies

@Sean Kuchle 

There is a hard limitation in SharePoint that multiple line columns can only store up to 255 characters. This is a known limitation in SharePoint and is documented in Microsoft's official documentation.

If you need to store more than 255 characters in a single column, you can consider using a different column type or splitting the text across multiple columns.

Here are some options:

  1. Use a single line of text column: If you don't need to preserve line breaks or formatting, you can use a single line of text column instead. Single line of text columns can store up to 4000 characters.

  2. Use multiple multiple line columns: If your text can be split into multiple categories or sections, you can use multiple multiple line columns to store the information. For example, you could use one column for the introduction, one for the body, and one for the conclusion.

  3. Use a document library: If you need to store large amounts of text or other files, you can consider using a document library instead of a list. Document libraries allow you to store and manage documents of various types and sizes.

I hope this helps!

Thank you for your help.
Although Multiline does seem to have the 255 limit the Microsoft documentation says the limit for single line is 255 and the limit for multi is 63,999. I'm curious where you found the 4000 limit?
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/list-and-library-column-types-and-options-0d8ddb7b-7dc7-4...