boundaries and limits for SharePoint Online regarding the number of records in a list

[Mohsenhs]

Hi there, 

Based on this :

List view threshold: 5000

Items:30M per list

I would like to know the difference between these two. Based on my understanding if the number of records in a list is greater than 5k (say 5001), if a change is made to a record of this list, SP locks the whole list for a very short time (I assume seconds) to do necessary updates. An alternative interpretation (I have been told) is that if a list reaches 5001 then the list locks and we need to contact Microsoft to unlock this list. This alternative interpretation does not rational as the boundary for a list is about 30M (I know it depends on the number of columns, size, and type of columns). However, I would like to know what happens if the number of items in a list reaches a higher number than 5k but significantly lower than 30M (say 15k). Does our admin need to do something specific regarding the SP settings? We are using SP online  (as the domain is ourcompnay.sharepoint.com).

Thanks

Mohsen

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mohsenhs 

The List view threshold is how many items will be returned when opening a view in SharePoint. 

For instance if there are 10,000 items and you have a view that shows all items, the view will only return 5,000 items and these could be an of the 10,000, its not in order as far as I have seen. 

For sure you can have 15,000 items, just make sure any of your views and number of files in one folder do not exceed 5000 items. For example if you store 200,000 items in one document library in a folder structure then you will be able to navigate through the entire folder structure as long as one folder doesn't have 5000 items in it. 

If you do go over the amount it will just tell you when you are trying to update certain settings but you won't need to get it unlocked.  Here is an article on what to do if you have over 5000 items in a view and get an error. 

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/manage-large-lists-and-libraries-b8588dae-9387-48c2-9248-...

[#3]

@Andrew Hodges 

Thank you for the response, so if the limit is 5k per view and it seems we cannot have more than 50 views for a list in the dropdown list, then the max number of items in a list is 250k not 30M that MS claims, right? Although I have doubts in this number (50), a person has reported that they were able to add 500 views to a list but a list can only show 50 of them, so how can we access the remaining 450?

https://sharepoint.stackexchange.com/questions/129250/how-many-list-views-can-be-created

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/sharepoint/views-how-many-per-list/m-p/1759830