Changing permissions on document library over 5,000 items SharePoint Online

Question

I have a document library that is well over 5,000 items. I need to update the document library permissions, but I'm unable to do that, whenever I try and break inheritence it gives me the warning

'The attempted operation is prohibited because it exceeds the list view threshold enforced by the administrator.'

I have also tried via the CSOM.

Surely Microsoft hasn't made it impossible to change permission once a doc library is over 5,000 files?

Answer 1

The work around I have used to bypass this is to delete some of the items in order to get below the 5000 item limit, then do the changes to the list and then restore the deleted items. Crude but it works

Answer 2

Your suspicions are correct. Microsoft severely limits what you can do with that document library. If you can't temporarily move documents out, I would recommend creating a new library with the desired permissions, and migrate the documents to that one. While you're at it, you can add indexed metadata to fix the 5,000 limit permanently.

Answer 3

You can try increase list view threshold.

Here is answer how to change it

SP2013 List view threshold changed

Answer 4

you can use this script with proper editation for updating thousands of documents of items, just use Query collections and index:

[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint.Client") #| Out-Null
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime") #| Out-Null
Add-Type -Path "c:\Program Files\SharePoint Online Management Shell\Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell\Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.Client.Tenant.dll"
cls

$username = "[email protected]"
$password = ConvertTo-SecureString "" -AsPlainText -Force

$siteUrl = [string]::Format("https://company.sharepoint.com/sites/site1/")
$cc = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($siteUrl)
$cc.Credentials = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($username, $password)

$list = $cc.Web.GetList("/sites/site1/Lists/List1")
$cc.Load($list);
$cc.ExecuteQuery();

$query = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CamlQuery
$query.ViewXml = "<View><RowLimit>100</RowLimit></View>"
$i = 1
$y = 0

do
{
    Write-Host "Round $i" -ForegroundColor DarkYellow
    $listItems = $list.GetItems($query);
    $cc.Load($listItems);
    $cc.ExecuteQuery();
    foreach($item in $listItems)
    {      
            Write-Host "Updating item $($item.Id)" #"$($item.DisplayName)" -ForegroundColor Yellow
            # Update item here
            $item.Update()
            $y++

            if($y -eq 10)
            {
                $cc.ExecuteQuery()
                $y=0
            }
    }
    $query.ListItemCollectionPosition = $listItems.ListItemCollectionPosition
    $i++
}
while ($query.ListItemCollectionPosition -ne $null)

Hope it helps!

Answer 5

I would also say you should check if there are many documents within the library that have unique permissions. If you then find this is a problem, have a look at this article Solutions and workarounds for SharePoint permission limits.

If not, check Software boundaries and limits for SharePoint

Answer 6

Microsoft say you can't break permissions once you are over 100000 items

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/customize-permissions-for-a-sharepoint-list-or-library-02d770f3-59eb-4910-a608-5f84cc297782