How do I work with SharePoint threshold limits getting items using OnePlaceMail

Abstract

This KB provides information on how you can overcome threshold limits in SharePoint whilst using OnePlaceMail. The idea is not to get around the threshold limits of SharePoint as they are in place for valid performance reasons, but rather, to provide ways to work with them so that you can still access SharePoint content in OnePlaceMail. 

Location Content - Insert, Open and Save to SharePoint dialogs

 When browsing location content (i.e. the list of documents in a document library, or list of items in a list) using the OnePlaceMail dialogs you may experience errors regarding threshold limits being exceeded. This can be for several reasons:

Reason 1

You may receive the error below when trying to view the content in a location in SharePoint:

This error is controlled by the resource throttling setting on the web application in SharePoint Central Administration:

The setting above is for non-admins

The setting above is for admins

For normal users (users that are not SharePoint Farm Administrators) the number of items that they can access in SharePoint is 5000 items whereas Administrators are 20000. What this means is that if the library/list has more than 5000 items (both documents and folders) they will not be able to view any of the content in that library/list location and you will receive the error above.

If you receive this error using OnePlaceMail you have three options:

Option 1 - Modify the threshold setting in Central Administration

This is not possible in SharePoint Online/Office 365. This approach is not recommended as it could have performance impacts in SharePoint.

Option 2 - Index the Content Type column

In the scenario where you have a library with more than 5000 items comprising e.g. 1000 folders and 4000 document items, you will still get the threshold error even though the number of documents is less than 5000. In order to get all of the threshold (5000) applied to just documents (not folders) you can index the content type column. To do this go to library settings, then indexed columns as below:

Then select Create Index:

Then select the Content Type column:

If the number of documents still exceeds 5000 you will still receive the threshold error.

Option 3 - Create a view called "Content View" in the list/library with a filter to return less than the threshold limit

If you create a view called "Content View" in the library/list OnePlaceMail will try to use it for obtaining content. The name of this view can be modified using the configuration update process documented in the Administration guide.

Set a filter on the view to filter the data so the total number of items displayed in the view is less than the threshold, based on e.g. a date range, a number, by item id etc. in filter settings on the view as below:

Reason 2

 You may receive the error below when trying to view the content in a location in SharePoint:

 This is error occurs when the number of lookup type columns (columns that have to lookup somewhere for their values - not just lookup column types) such as Managed Metadata, People groups, Lookup columns exceeds the threshold for the total number allowed in a library. This behaviour is controlled by the web application resource throttling setting in SharePoint Central Administration below:

The setting above is for non- Admins

Administrators do not have a threshold limit set. If the total number of the columns described above in a library exceeds the threshold above (default is 8) you get the error above. In order to resolve the issue you have two options:

Option 1 - Increase the threshold (not recommended)

This option is not recommended as it could lead to performance impacts in SharePoint

Option 2 - Modify the number of columns that perform lookups in the library

Analyse how many of the following columns you have on the library:

• Lookup Columns
• Enterprise Keywords column enabled on library
• Managed Metadata columns
• People and groups columns
• Lookup columns

If the total exceeds 8 consider deleting some columns or consolidating the number in the library.

Reason 3 

 You receive the following error when expanding the list of folders in the navigation tree:

This is caused by the same threshold setting in Reason 1 above.

The options available are the same as Reason 1 above:

Option 1 - Modify the threshold setting in Central Administration

Not recommended

Option 2 - Index the Content Type column

Same as Reason 1 above this will allow you to get the threshold setting to just use folder items so you will get support to 5000 folders, if you have more than 5000 you will still get errors

Option 3 - Create a view called "Content View Navigation" in the list/library with a filter to return less than the threshold limit

Create a view which restricts the number of folders to less than the threshold using the filter setting of the view.