The List View Threshold

How to work around the list view threshold when building your views and queries.

SharePoint list views have a limit on the number of items which can be matched by the filter. In SharePoint Online, this is 5000. In 'On Premise' environments it's configurable, but 5000 by default.

Charts can only be rendered based on a maximum of this limit of items. If your filter or view exceeds this limit, you'll receive the following error message:

Failed to render the series. The attempted operation is prohibited because it exceeds the list view threshold enforced by the administrator. Try selecting a view which returns less than 5000 items.

The key to overcoming this limit is to decide how to split your data appropriately - it'll have the positive side effect of making it more easily understandable for the viewer.

For example, instead of rendering a chart to display Sales by Region, you could display Sales by Region - Last Quarter or Sales by Region - this year.

Technical options are outlined below.

Note: any fields you intend to filter on should be Indexed.

Add a secondary grouping

You can split your data into multiple data-series by selecting the secondary grouping:

Add a secondary grouping field

This relies on each individual data series also coming in under the 5000 item limit. it can provide for more informational charts.

Add a filter

A filter can be added under Filtering > Field to filter:

Adding a filter

Create a custom view with a filter

You can filter on any view. To do this, select a view under Filtering > View:

You can configure a custom view and it'll show up here. Your view should be created such that it matches less than 5000 items.