Enforcing limits for SharePoint Lists, Libraries, and Subsites

[phawrylak]

What type of issue is this?

Question

What SharePoint development model, framework, SDK or API is this about?

not applicable

Target SharePoint environment

SharePoint Online

What browser(s) / client(s) have you tested

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• mobile (iOS/iPadOS)
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• other (enter in the "Additional environment details" area below)

Additional environment details

No response

Issue description

According to Microsoft the limit of 2000 subsites, lists and libraries will be enforced from November/December instead of just a recommendation as it is now. I have some old solutions where this limit is exceeded. Will this limit apply to direct subsites of specific (sub)site or to a total number of all subsites in specific site collection? I suspect it will be the second case, but I just want to confirm that. Thanks in advance for the answer.

@patrick-rodgers @VesaJuvonen

Thank you for reporting this issue. We will be triaging your incoming issue as soon as possible.

[CallumCrowley]

@phawrylak that's really interesting regarding the subsite limit being enforced, can you link the announcement for this?

[phawrylak]

@CallumCrowley The announcement can be found in Microsoft 365 Admin Center (Message Center) - MC405984 from 2022-07-26:

https://admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home?source=applauncher&ref=MessageCenter/:/messages/MC405984

Message Summary
SharePoint recommends a maximum of 2,000 lists and libraries per site, and 2,000 subsites per site. These have been long standing limits for SharePoint but have not been formally enforced.

There have been cases where some sites exceeded these limits, resulting in poor site performance and low-quality viewing experience. One of the most impacted areas is the API performance that degrades significantly when users access data on the sites that exceed their recommended limits. The API calls may time out or get throttled, blocking the users from opening the site or resulting in unexpected failures. In some extreme cases, the issue can impact functionalities beyond these sites.

To ensure site performance and help customers have the best possible experience, Microsoft will implement a safeguard to prevent customers from exceeding these limits.

When will this happen:

The enforcement of the limits will start in early November and will be completely enforced by late December.

How this will affect your organization:

Once these limits are enforced, sites that exceed the limit of 2,000 lists and libraries will no longer be able to have new libraries or lists added to the site. Similarly, any site that exceeds the limit of 2,000 subsites will no longer be able to have new subsites added to the site.

When a site reaches these limits, users will see the following message on SharePoint web:

View image in new tab

On the API request to create a new list or document library, SharePoint will return the error code, ERROR_SHARING_BUFFER_EXCEEDED on the API request.

Libraries, lists, and subsites that have been created before the enforcement rollout and exceed the corresponding limit, will continue to function and their access will not be blocked. The change will only impact the creation of new lists, libraries or subsites outside the approved limits starting in November. These new additions will get blocked at the time of creation once the site reaches the corresponding limit.

What you need to do to prepare:

Share these limits with people who manage SharePoint sites in your organization. If the sites in your tenant are below the limits, this change will not impact you.

It is uncommon for the organic growth of site to reach these limits. However, there is a possibility that custom solutions can generate a high volume of lists and libraries. In that situation, our recommendation is to work with their solution providers to prepare an alternative solution in order to stay compliant with these limits.

[CallumCrowley]

@phawrylak thanks! I have long been warning against using subsites for a while (mainly because MSFT appear to be pushing flat architecture) and had assumed there would be performance problems of having many subsites in one site collection (in SharePoint Online). It's good to have more clarification from Microsoft.

[CallumCrowley]

@phawrylak they seem to be referring to this recommendation, which states 2000 per site collection (that's regardless of how many levels of subsites there are in a site collection). So, they're almost certainly referring to the total subsites in a site collection in their message.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Microsoft, hopefully someone from Microsoft on this repo can give you a definite answer.

[magonzalezm]

According to the mssage in the message center:" a site collection can have 2,000 subsites (including the main site) and each subsite (including the main site) could have 2,000 lists and libraries (including the hidden and default out of the box libraries)."

This does not coincide with the argument of 2000 lists included site and subsites.

It's a little contradictory.

Anyone has the confirmation of which will be the exact limitation?

[himani-chi]

This is a clarification that we added later on. 2000 lists and libraries is a per web limit. So the root web of a Site Collection can have maximum 2000 lists and libraries, each subsite under this rootweb can further have 2000 lists and libraries.

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