Unable to move a folder and delete files

Question

Unable to move a folder and delete files

Firouzeh Foroutan 0

A staff member mistakenly moved our CLIENT folder. I have been trying to move it back but keep getting the message "file Count over limit", which does not make sense because it was moved once, so it should not be a problem to move it again. IN the meantime, I have moved at least 40 files from the CLIENT folder but it's been useless.

IN addition, I cannot delete or move certain other files. Not sure what's going on, but I need help with this ASAP.

Thank you!

[Moderator note: personal identifiable Information removed]

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1 answer

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Answer 1

Hi Firouzeh,

For your situation, I truly understand your concern as logically, if the CLIENT folder moved once, it should move back the same way. However, in OneDrive for Business, though, large folder moves can hit per-operation limits, sync performance limits, permissions, locks, or retention rules, so the earlier successful move does not guarantee the reverse move will also be accepted. Based on your sharing, the most likely cause is that the move operation is counting everything inside CLIENT, including all sub-folders, not only the folder itself, which may exceed Microsoft's documented limits (no more than 30,000 files/no more than 100 GB total file size in a single operation).

That said, for the fastest fix in this situation, I would recommend reaching out to your Microsoft 365 administrator and asking for their help. Your administrator can help check whether the folder exceeds SharePoint move/copy limits, whether any items are locked/checked out, or whether retention policies are preventing move/delete operations, and then they can help you move the folder using admin tools.

In case you do not know who your IT admin is, kindly refer to this article: How do I find my Microsoft 365 admin? - Microsoft Support

Hope this information helps you move forward smoothly. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments of this post. I'm happy to assist you further with your concern.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Hope to hear from you soon.

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