How many libraries can a site have?

[Rafael Benicio]

Hey guys, 

Is there a maximum number of libraries I could have in a site without compromising the search engine? 

I am planning to create a personal folder for each staff member + departments. It would be around 30 libraries for the main site. is there any issue with that? 

It might be a dumb question but what is the purpose of having folders within libraries? I have read a couple of websites advising to do not create folders. What is the simple answer I could give to my team if they ask me? 

Thanks, 

[#2 · Accepted solution]

there is no issue with doing that, you can have millions of items in a site

the actual limits are listed at https://support.office.com/en-us/article/SharePoint-Online-limits-8f34ff47-b749-408b-abc0-b605e1f6d4...

Folder are discouraged by many people because they just dumb containers in which things are stored, they don't provide any actual information about what is stored in a folder. You can put anything you want into a folder, which can be confusing, e.g, you can put an expense report into a resume folder and nobody will know. 

Using metadata to tag documents is preferred by many of us because it provides helpful information about the file that can travel with the file, be used to provide better search results and be enforced through the use of pick lists and data types.

[#3]

Thank you, Dean, for your response.  

[#4]

Dean is correct!

[#5]

The only possible reason to use folders in a library is to set a unique set of permissions on the content - although most of the time a new Library is better

[#6]

Some things to consider,

• each user already has their own OneDrive site. 
• When a person add a file, they are shown in the CreatedBy and/or Modified By fields so the system tracks this automatically and you can then create views that use these values
• If you are trying to automate something based on the User, then you may want to look into using the Content Organizer - it will automatically route documents to desired locations