How to handle a large number of rows and high volumes of column data?

[bhoomesh-spe]

What type of issue is this?

Question

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

💥 SharePoint Framework

Target SharePoint environment

SharePoint Online

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

• 💥 Internet Explorer
• 💥 Microsoft Edge
• 💥 Google Chrome
• 💥 FireFox
• 💥 Safari
• mobile (iOS/iPadOS)
• mobile (Android)
• not applicable
• other (enter in the "Additional environment details" area below)

Additional environment details

• browser version - 47.0.7727.56
• SPFx version - 1.21.1
• Node.js version - 22.14.0
• PnP JS - 4.17.0

Issue description

We have created a SharePoint site collection and a SharePoint list named “My List Data” that contains Title(Single Line Text), Description(Multi Line Text), and Company(Choice) fields as per our requirements.

We also developed an SPFx project for customization and implemented the following code to retrieve data from this SharePoint list.

import { spfi, SPFI, SPFx } from '@pnp/sp';
import '@pnp/sp/items';
import '@pnp/sp/lists';
import '@pnp/sp/webs';


const sp: SPFI = getSP();
const listData = await sp.web.lists.getByTitle("My List Data").items.select("").top(5000);
// Also, we have tried to select only the necessary columns
// const listData = await sp.web.lists.getByTitle("My List Data").items.select("Id,Title,Description,Company").top(5000);
console.log("listData:", listData);

Due to the large number of rows and the high volume of data in the Description(Multi-Line Text) field, it is impacting the overall performance. The Description column contains important data. So, we cannot exclude that column from the SharePoint list api call.

Could anyone suggest an efficient approach to handle a large number of rows and high volumes of column data?

Thanks in Advance.

[Ashlesha-MSFT]

Hello,
Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We will look into it and get back to you shortly.
If you don’t receive a reply within two working days, please use this escalation form to escalate.

[Ashlesha-MSFT]

This behavior is by design in SharePoint Online.

SharePoint enforces limits such as the List View Threshold (typically 5000 items) to maintain performance and prevent resource-intensive queries. Retrieving large datasets—especially with high-volume fields like multi-line text—can lead to performance degradation.https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/list-view-threshold-for-large-lists-and-libraries-e2ea4d5d-ec23-4171-95c4-c7f5b5dbfd8a

We recommend:

1. Using pagination (e.g., smaller batches instead of 5000 items)
2. Filtering data using indexed columns
3. Loading large fields (like multi-line text) only when required

These approaches align with SharePoint best practices for handling large lists efficiently.

[bhoomesh-spe]

@Ashlesha-MSFT - Thanks for the response.

Can I get the latest 100 items that were created by the current user from the "My List Data" list?

Thanks