List view threshold shows as exceeded even when it is not

Question

I have a list that exceeds the 5000 item limit. I created a view that is limited to 500 total items returned but I still get the error:

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

There are no lookup columns on this view. What could be the cause of the threshold being tripped?

Answer 1

If you're not performing a filter within a View on an indexed column, you may receive this error. In addition, if you're attempting to use multiple filters, the first filter must return <5K results before moving onto additional filters.

Answer 2

List view doesn't matter. Internally Sharepoint still has more than 5000 elements and it knows it. SharePoint gets all the items in the list and only after that the list filters are applied.

This is what Microsoft proposes https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/2759051

Answer 3

Actually, you need to add an index on the filtered column for the created view

Go to the list and click on “Modify this view” in the ribbon. Under the “Filter” section, you should be able to see which columns are being used for the filter.

Then, navigate to list settings, select "indexed columns" and then "Create a new index" for each filtered column.

That's it!! Now you will be able to get the list items from the view with new index

Hope this resolves your problem.

Answer 4

I had the same issue. Columns were indexed and used to filter views to ensure none went over the threshold, the total number of items in the entire list was just over 5000 and all views broke, even if they only had 20 items in there!

As a workaround (and this makes no sense) create a new view with no filters, no sorting and no counting/totals and even though there are over 5000 items it displays correctly. You can't filter on any of the columns but you can use the search.

Answer 5

Check: there may a People and group column which may exceed limit, ensure that as well