Deleting a Library That Exceeds Threshold

Question

We have migrated a list with over 180K items and are receiving this error when trying to delete or modify permissions

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

How can I delete the library? Same error when access through PnP Powershell

Answer 1

You could use PnP Powershell to delete the items in the library first then delete the library. Try this demo to delete items in the large library:

$libraryName="doc"
for ($i=1; $i -le 180000; $i++){
  Remove-PnPListItem -List $libraryName -Identity $i -Force
}

Updated:

Get-PnPListItem -List $libraryName -PageSize 10 -ScriptBlock { Param($items)} | % { Remove-PnPListItem -List $libraryName -Identity $_.Id -Force}

Answer 2

As long as you specify the -PageSize parameter set to some number under 5000, you can still use Get-PnPListItem with lists that have exceeded the list view threshold. You can obviously still specify the -Query parameter if you only want a subset of the list's items, but you still have to specify the -PageSize parameter if the list is too big. Then you can pipe the results to something like Remove-PnPListItem if you want to delete them, or use export-csv to preserve the data before you delete, etc.

Answer 3

As Michael Han_MSFT mentioned, you need to delete items first, but plain Remove-PnPListItem is slow (~1 item per second)

The fastest option worked for me was:

Get-PnPListItem -List $list -Fields "ID" -PageSize 100 -ScriptBlock { Param($items) $items | Sort-Object -Descending | ForEach-Object{ $_.DeleteObject() } }

Another option - use PnP batches:

$batch = New-PnPBatch
$itemsToDelete | Foreach-Object { Remove-PnPListItem -List $list -Identity $_.Id -Batch $batch }
Invoke-PnPBatch -Batch $batch

Answer 4

You can try the below code:

#Load SharePoint CSOM Assemblies
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll"
Add-Type -Path "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\16\ISAPI\Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll"

#Config Parameters
$SiteURL= "https://crescent.sharepoint.com/"
$ListName="Projects"
$BatchSize = 500

#Setup Credentials to connect
$Cred = Get-Credential
$Cred = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.SharePointOnlineCredentials($Cred.UserName,$Cred.Password)

Try {
    #Setup the context
    $Ctx = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext($SiteURL)
    $Ctx.Credentials = $Cred

    #Get the web and List
    $Web=$Ctx.Web
    $List=$web.Lists.GetByTitle($ListName)
    $Ctx.Load($List)
    $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()
    Write-host "Total Number of Items Found in the List:"$List.ItemCount

    #Define CAML Query
    $Query = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.CamlQuery
    $Query.ViewXml = "<View><RowLimit>$BatchSize</RowLimit></View>"

    Do { 
        #Get items from the list in batches
        $ListItems = $List.GetItems($Query)
        $Ctx.Load($ListItems)
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

        #Exit from Loop if No items found
        If($ListItems.count -eq 0) { Break; }

        Write-host Deleting $($ListItems.count) Items from the List...

        #Loop through each item and delete
        ForEach($Item in $ListItems)
        {
            $List.GetItemById($Item.Id).DeleteObject()
        }
        $Ctx.ExecuteQuery()

    } While ($True)

    Write-host -f Green "All Items Deleted!"
}
Catch {
    write-host -f Red "Error Deleting List Items!" $_.Exception.Message
}

To delete items using pnp powershell, try the below code,

#Config Variables
$SiteURL = "https://crescenttech.sharepoint.com/sites/marketing"
$ListName ="Records"

#Get Credentials to connect
$Cred = Get-Credential

Try {
    #Connect to PNP Online
    Connect-PnPOnline -Url $SiteURL -Credentials $Cred

    #Get All List Items in Batch
    $ListItems = Get-PnPListItem -List $ListName -PageSize 1000

    #Loop through List Items and Delete
    ForEach ($Item in $ListItems)
    {
        Remove-PnPListItem -List $ListName -Identity $Item.Id -Force
    }
}
catch {
    write-host "Error: $($_.Exception.Message)" -foregroundcolor Red
}

Source: https://www.sharepointdiary.com/2015/10/delete-all-list-items-in-sharepoint-online-using-powershell.html

And also have a look at this link:

Deleting a Very Large SharePoint List.