Is There a Limit on the Number of Content Types Allowed in a Library?

Copper Contributor

Hi,

Everything I've read says there's no hard limit on the number of Content Types you can have in a Library.

However, I'm running into issues with 39 or more Content Types added to a Library. When I add the 39th, the metadata 'details pane' will not show any metadata at all, and it displays a spinning wheel which never goes away, even after leaving it sit all day. It just looks like it's trying to load the metadata, but never does. When I remove the 39th content type bringing the total down to 38, everything works again.


I've tried:

  • Creating new libraries and adding the content types again. Same issue.
  • For the 39th content type, I've tried different ones to see if a particular one was causing issue. But it doesn't matter which one is the 39th.
  • Tried adding content types in smaller batches (five at a time) in case SharePoint had trouble processing all at once.
  • Tried waiting 24hrs to see if there was a timer job waiting to happen. Same issue.


Here is a screen capture below to help illustrate:

Limit-Content-Types.jpg


Any insight appreciated,

Anton

1 Reply
We got in touch with Microsoft support. Apparently this is a known issue. There is a limit to the amount of columns that can be fetched at one time. Every column type has a different impact to that maximum. So I think this isn't directly linked to the number of content types, but rather the total columns across all content types in a library...even if you use the same columns in all the content types. Had to consolidate some content types into broader categories....and then relied on a managed metadata 'document type' column rather than classify our docs using content types.