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Removing list records that are a data source to Power App

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Posted on by CU29092301-0

I have a SharePoint list that is a data source for some of my Apps. The list has become too large, over 10,000 items and I would like to archive a number of the records based on date to another SharePoint list for reference. In doing this, I hope to get the records under 5,000 to eliminate threshold issues on the list and the app. The question I have, once I move the records from the main original SharePoint list, these records will now become disconnected from any associated Apps because I will have moved them to another list, correct?

Experiencing numerous query issues with threshold and lookup columns. I have indexed columns and separate views, filters. Still receiving threshold and column lookup issues. Any help is appreciated.

Thank you.

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WarrenBelz 155,638 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @CU29092301-0,

Yes, Power Apps does not keep its own data - removing the records will cause them to no longer be available in Power Apps.

The 5,000 SharePoint view record is only an issue if the column being referenced is not indexed (I have many lists over 100k records).

The Lookup column limit however is not able to be bypassed as it is built-in element of SharePoint. There are generally many other better alternatives to using Lookup columns (I do not use them at all). What are you using them for ? If only to get items for drop-downs, you can reference the second list directly in Power Apps and write back to a Text field. This also saves a lot of restrictions of Lookup columns - you cannot Sort by them or use StartsWith with Delegation and they are more complex to write to/read from.

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CU29092301-0 84 on at

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Hi WarrenBelz,

Thank you for your quick reply!

The list has over 100 columns (many lookup), lots of dates and person columns. The filter set on the list is simple, it is filtered on two columns, both indexed (the list is maxed out at the 20 indexed columns). Start Date and Accept/Decline (both indexed). Get items where start date is today or greater, with Accept/Decline equals Accept. The issue is on the filtered results, the label for any given start date is randomly miscalculating the number of the actual records. For example, the Start Date: 6/29/2026 (18) label shows 18, but the actual count with all records with a start date of 6/29/2026 is more, 26 actual records. So, something is off here.

The lookup column limit, the columns are all very random in nature, I don't know how I would be able to pinpoint where the one single issue might be as there are so many columns. I think I need to first identify how many there are and how many I can get rid of. Is it going to be easy for me to just start trying to randomly change the field types? Will this affect associated flows/apps? I'm learning more with Power Apps, but I'm not sure I understand what you mean by write back to a text field? I will likely not use a second list at this point if it won't really help solve what I need. I will likely try and change the lookup columns to non-lookup columns where possible.

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WarrenBelz 155,638 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @CU29092301-0,

Person Columns also count towards the limit, so your problem may also be there. The total limit of (combined) Person and Lookup columns that can be used in a single query (displayng a Form or Gallery involving the fields is a query) is 12. Anything beyond that will fail. You can use ShowColumns in some instances if you can reduce the requested columns to that number, but I think your real issue going forward is your data structure.

Instead of Person columns, if you are only wanting to capture either the Name or Email, you can still use the normal Combo Box Items with Office365Users.SearchUser or Office365Groups.ListGroupMembers in Power Apps and then write the DisplayName or Mail back to a Text field in SharePoint.

What I meant regarding the Text field was have a Single Line of Text instead of a Lookup or Person field. For Lookups, the Items of the Combo Box would refer directly to the other list and field being looked up.
Sort( YourSecondListName, LookedUpFieldName ).LookedUpFieldName

The Update of the Data Card would then simply be (writing back to a Text fied)
ComboBoxName.Selected.LookedUpFieldName

In the case of a Person query with the Combo Box Items
Office365Users.SearchUser( { searchTerm: Self.SearchText, isSearchTermRequired: false } )

The Update of the Data Card - if the name required
ComboBoxName.Selected.DisplayName

and if Email required
ComboBoxName.Selected.Mail

The point here is that your data structure will (if not already) become somewhat unmanageable going forward and some "future proofing" probably needs looking at now.

Also, can you please post (in Text) the Filter using the dates that is causing you issues.

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CU29092301-0 84 on at

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Hi WarrenBelz,

Attached are images for the filter on this same list in question to show Start Dates today or later with Accept status. Clearly there are more than 5 records for 6/28/26.

Filter (Show items only when the following is true

Accept/Decline (Indexed) is equal to Accept

And

Start Date(Indexed) is greater than or equal to Today

Group By Start Date in ascending order

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WarrenBelz 155,638 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @CU29092301-0,

I assumed this was a Power Apps question (as this is a Power Apps Community).

That looks like a SharePoint view - I can however add (from experience) that once a List gets over 5,000 records, it does not respond well to Views with more than one level of Filter. Try the date only and see how that goes.

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CU29092301-0 84 on at

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Hi WarrenBelz,

Thank you and apologies for the cross community ask.

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MarkRahn 1,395 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @CU29092301-0

You are running into a delegation problem with the number of Lookup columns in the View in SharePoint. To troubleshoot this, create a "lean" SP View in your List.

Make a new view that contains only:

Title

Start Date

Accept/Decline

Maybe 1-2 other simple fields.

No lookups, person, multi-choice, or managed metadata fields.

Apply your filtering and grouping. See if your counts are correct. If so, this proves the issue is with the Lookups.

You will need to limit your View so it contains no more than 12 lookup-type columns. (If you find that the "lean" view does not return the correct counts, please report back for more troubleshooting.)

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CU29092301-0 84 on at

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MarkRahn,

Thank you! I will attempt this next week and come back here with results. Thank you for the community support.

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WarrenBelz 155,638 Most Valuable Professional on at

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Hi @CU29092301-0,

@MarkRahn is absolutely correct in the mechanism to manage SharePoint views with yout structure (although I have seen some strange outcomes on multi-level SharePoint filters on large lists). I would still however urge you to consider revising your data structure if you are going to use this list in Power Apps - I suspect you are going to encounter limitaitons you could do without.

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