Troubleshooting SharePoint List Not Showing All Items – Common Reasons and Solutions

Stephen King ~ Modified: August 16th, 2024 ~ SharePoint ~ 5 Minutes Reading

No doubt, SharePoint is a powerful tool for collaboration and document management. It is known for multiple advanced features but despite these, its frequently used feature is the SharePoint list. These lists allow users to manage and display the essential data in different ways. However, sometimes users may confront an issue where the SharePoint list not showing all items. This can be frustrating and hampers the user’s routine tasks. In this article, we will discuss the common reasons and their solutions in detail.

Overview of SharePoint Lists

Before directly jumping to the problem, let’s take a look at the SharePoint list. These lists are used to store the data in the form of rows and columns. This helps to monitor the ongoing tasks, contacts, managing the database, etc. In addition, SharePoint lists can also be customized with different views, filters, and essential sorting options to simplify access to the data.

Best 5 Benefits of SharePoint Lists

Here are the top 5 benefits of using the SharePoint lists.

  • SharePoint lists act as a unified storage for storing multiple data types.
  • Customizations can be performed easily in the SharePoint lists to meet the business requirements.
  • Real-time collaboration is also improved because it allows users to work the lists simultaneously.
  • SharePoint lists are easy to integrate with other Microsoft tools such as Power Automate, Power Apps, and so on.
  • Search capabilities are also enhanced that help users to gather the essential information by searching which saves a lot of time and effort of the users.

Common Reasons and Solutions Why SharePoint List Not Showing All Items

1. View Threshold Limit

SharePoint uses the threshold limit feature to specify the limit of the items shown in the list. It is used to maintain the performance and stability of SharePoint. By default, the view threshold limit is set to 5000 items only. A list having more than 5000 items will only show the first 5000 items.

Solutions:

  • Indexed Columns: You can use the indexed columns to optimize the list performance while dealing with large datasets.
  • Use Filtered Views: Create the filter views to show the relevant information to the users.

2. Incorrect View Settings

As SharePoint offers the option of view for accessing the SharePoint lists data efficiently. These are highly customizable. There might be views that are customized in such a way that they exclude the results that you want. As a result, the SharePoint list not showing all items.

Solution:

  • Check View Filters: Move to the list settings and make sure that you have not excluded the items that you want to see.
  • Adjust Item Limits: Also, ensure that the item limit setting in the view is appropriate as per need.
  • Reset the View: You can also reset the current view and create a new view according to your requirements.

3. Misconfiguration of Permissions

SharePoint administrator manages the permissions of the SharePoint. There are numerous permissions in SharePoint such as view, edit, manage, and so on. If you do not have permission to view the content, then you cannot see that data. This might occur when the SharePoint list is prepared by another user and that user configured the permissions for accessing the data.

Solution:

  • Check User Permissions: Verify the permissions to access the data in the SharePoint list. To do so, you can review the SharePoint list permissions.
  • Break Permission Inheritance: If the items of the SharePoint list are configured with unique permissions. You need to verify that the permissions are set correctly.

Also Read: How to Create a SharePoint Group?

4. Content Approval

One of the common problems behind the SharePoint list not showing all items is content approval. If the SharePoint lists items are in the draft or pending approval state. Then only the permitted users can see the data.

Solution:

  • Approve Items: Make sure the content approval is enabled so that the items after approval available for the users.
  • Review Draft Item Security: Verify the permissions to access the draft items. Ensure that the needy users also have permission to access the draft items.

5. Improper Settings of Metadata and Navigation

SharePoint provides the option to navigate and filter the list items according to the metadata. There might be a situation, where the administrator misconfigured the settings of the metadata navigation or filtering.

Solution:

  • Review Metadata Navigation Settings: Check the metadata and navigation settings that are configured correctly.
  • Clear Filters: Remove all the unintended filters that affect the data visibility.

An Efficient Solution to Maintain Your Productivity Even After SharePoint List Not Showing All Items

This is a common issue that occurred in SharePoint. There are a lot more as well that affect the productivity of the users. So, to keep your productivity unaffected. You can use the Migrator Wizard SharePoint to SharePoint Migration Tool to move SharePoint list to another site for further use.

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After transferring your SharePoint list to another tenant, you can access it whenever you require. It will improve your productivity and also add an extra level of security to your data.

Conclusion

A SharePoint list not showing all items can create a lot of trouble for the users. Most of the time, the common reasons are misconfiguration of views, permissions, and navigation settings. Therefore, we have outlined numerous solutions to deal with this issue.

Whether you are a SharePoint administrator or not, you can easily use these troubleshooting steps to access the expected items of the SharePoint list. In addition, we have also suggested an efficient solution to improve your efficiency even after the SharePoint lists issue. Hence the query is resolved.