If you've ever browsed a busy folder in Umbraco Cloud's Kudu console - a logs directory, or a media folder with thousands of files - you've probably seen this:
There are 1722 items in this directory, but maxViewItems is set to 299. You can increase maxViewItems by setting it to a larger value in localStorage.
Helpful in that it tells you the fix, unhelpful in that I forget how to do it every single time. So here's the note-to-self post.
The fix
Kudu's file browser caps how many items it'll render in one go, and that cap lives in your browser's localStorage - not on the server. To raise it, open your browser's DevTools (F12) on the Kudu page, switch to the Console tab, and run:
localStorage.setItem('maxViewItems', '5000');Refresh the page and you should see the full listing. Pick whatever ceiling makes sense - 5000 is usually plenty, but you can go higher for genuinely huge directories.
It's per-browser and per-domain, so you'll need to set it again on each Umbraco Cloud environment (Live, Staging, Development) the first time you hit the limit there. Umbraco's own Power Tools docs note that the limit can revert to 299 on refresh - localStorage should persist by spec, so I'd expect it to stick, but if you find yourself setting it repeatedly that's why.
Why the limit exists
The Kudu UI builds the directory listing in the DOM, and rendering thousands of rows at once will lock up the browser tab. The 299 default is a sensible guard, just an annoying one when you actually need to see everything.
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Written by Justin Neville
Justin has worked in software development since 1998. He began writing C and C++ applications, moving to C# and .NET development in 2002. From 2002 to 2013 he built large-scale internal web applications for major companies in the finance and insurance sectors. In 2013, he founded Nevitech IT Solutions Ltd, and since then has focused exclusively on building and supporting websites using Umbraco CMS.
Justin is an Umbraco Certified Master and an Umbraco MVP for 2026. He won the Umbraco AI Package Award for his AI Log Analyser package, contributes to the Umbraco CMS core, and co-organises the Umbraco Kent Meetup. His particular strengths include system architecture, performance optimisation, complex troubleshooting, and writing clean, scalable code. He also mentors junior developers and works closely with agency partners on complex builds requiring specialist expertise.
