One of the more confusing features of the desktop plug-in for HCL Connections is that it limits the number of files it shows for any given folder or file location to a maximum of 500 files. The system doesn’t warn the user of this or tell the users that they can show all items by right clicking somewhere in the folder (not on a file!) and selecting [Get All] (see picture below). So this is easily overlooked by users who then get frustrated as they are not finding the files they expect there.

On searching for another option I stumbled upon the following documentation that includes a setting to change this behavior: Preferences and policies for the HCL Connections Desktop Plug-ins for Microsoft Windows

Solution:

To force the desktop plugin to show all items (files/folders) add a string key in the policies section:

Windows 64-bit systems: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\IBM\Social Connectors\Settings

Windows 32-bit systems: KEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\IBM\Social Connectors\Settings

With the name: ReadAllAlways

And the value: 1 (= All items within a folder are displayed, even if the amount of child files and/or folders exceed 500)

Note: The 500 max was apparently set to allow for better performance on opening a folder. However, folders containing more then 500 files/folders are generally not that common and the benefit of eliminating support calls by confused users who can’t find files they know are there, would generally outweigh the slight delay one might get when opening a big folder.