diff --git a/conf/master b/conf/master
index 4cca7255097..9b062d56a13 100644
--- a/conf/master
+++ b/conf/master
@@ -766,13 +766,6 @@
 # files on the Master will not be returned to the Minion.
 #fileserver_ignoresymlinks: True
 #
-# By default, the Salt fileserver recurses fully into all defined environments
-# to attempt to find files. To limit this behavior so that the fileserver only
-# traverses directories with SLS files and special Salt directories like _modules,
-# enable the option below. This might be useful for installations where a file root
-# has a very large number of files and performance is impacted. Default is False.
-# fileserver_limit_traversal: False
-#
 # The fileserver can fire events off every time the fileserver is updated,
 # these are disabled by default, but can be easily turned on by setting this
 # flag to True
diff --git a/conf/minion b/conf/minion
index a82555d292f..f6f3bef173d 100644
--- a/conf/minion
+++ b/conf/minion
@@ -638,14 +638,6 @@
 # files on the Master will not be returned to the Minion.
 #fileserver_ignoresymlinks: True
 #
-# By default, the Salt fileserver recurses fully into all defined environments
-# to attempt to find files. To limit this behavior so that the fileserver only
-# traverses directories with SLS files and special Salt directories like _modules,
-# enable the option below. This might be useful for installations where a file root
-# has a very large number of files and performance is negatively impacted. Default
-# is False.
-#fileserver_limit_traversal: False
-
 # The hash_type is the hash to use when discovering the hash of a file on
 # the local fileserver. The default is sha256, but md5, sha1, sha224, sha384
 # and sha512 are also supported.
diff --git a/conf/proxy b/conf/proxy
index c3ebf89b5d1..ce897e50b42 100644
--- a/conf/proxy
+++ b/conf/proxy
@@ -447,14 +447,6 @@
 #  base:
 #    - /srv/salt
 
-# By default, the Salt fileserver recurses fully into all defined environments
-# to attempt to find files. To limit this behavior so that the fileserver only
-# traverses directories with SLS files and special Salt directories like _modules,
-# enable the option below. This might be useful for installations where a file root
-# has a very large number of files and performance is negatively impacted. Default
-# is False.
-#fileserver_limit_traversal: False
-
 # The hash_type is the hash to use when discovering the hash of a file in
 # the local fileserver. The default is sha256 but sha224, sha384 and sha512
 # are also supported.
diff --git a/conf/suse/master b/conf/suse/master
index 42129a7be8e..4cacc935fe2 100644
--- a/conf/suse/master
+++ b/conf/suse/master
@@ -699,13 +699,6 @@ syndic_user: salt
 # files on the Master will not be returned to the Minion.
 #fileserver_ignoresymlinks: True
 #
-# By default, the Salt fileserver recurses fully into all defined environments
-# to attempt to find files. To limit this behavior so that the fileserver only
-# traverses directories with SLS files and special Salt directories like _modules,
-# enable the option below. This might be useful for installations where a file root
-# has a very large number of files and performance is impacted. Default is False.
-# fileserver_limit_traversal: False
-#
 # The fileserver can fire events off every time the fileserver is updated,
 # these are disabled by default, but can be easily turned on by setting this
 # flag to True
diff --git a/doc/ref/configuration/master.rst b/doc/ref/configuration/master.rst
index 4c5bfa00aed..5906b08a26f 100644
--- a/doc/ref/configuration/master.rst
+++ b/doc/ref/configuration/master.rst
@@ -2707,32 +2707,6 @@ Master will not be returned to the Minion.
 
     fileserver_ignoresymlinks: False
 
-.. conf_master:: fileserver_limit_traversal
-
-``fileserver_limit_traversal``
-------------------------------
-
-.. versionadded:: 2014.1.0
-.. deprecated:: 2018.3.4
-   This option is now ignored. Firstly, it only traversed
-   :conf_master:`file_roots`, which means it did not work for the other
-   fileserver backends. Secondly, since this option was added we have added
-   caching to the code that traverses the file_roots (and gitfs, etc.), which
-   greatly reduces the amount of traversal that is done.
-
-Default: ``False``
-
-By default, the Salt fileserver recurses fully into all defined environments
-to attempt to find files. To limit this behavior so that the fileserver only
-traverses directories with SLS files and special Salt directories like _modules,
-set ``fileserver_limit_traversal`` to ``True``. This might be useful for
-installations where a file root has a very large number of files and performance
-is impacted.
-
-.. code-block:: yaml
-
-    fileserver_limit_traversal: False
-
 .. conf_master:: fileserver_list_cache_time
 
 ``fileserver_list_cache_time``
diff --git a/doc/ref/configuration/minion.rst b/doc/ref/configuration/minion.rst
index 21194841847..8b389a946cb 100644
--- a/doc/ref/configuration/minion.rst
+++ b/doc/ref/configuration/minion.rst
@@ -2511,26 +2511,6 @@ Master will not be returned to the Minion.
 
     fileserver_ignoresymlinks: False
 
-.. conf_minion:: fileserver_limit_traversal
-
-``fileserver_limit_traversal``
-------------------------------
-
-.. versionadded:: 2014.1.0
-
-Default: ``False``
-
-By default, the Salt fileserver recurses fully into all defined environments
-to attempt to find files. To limit this behavior so that the fileserver only
-traverses directories with SLS files and special Salt directories like _modules,
-set ``fileserver_limit_traversal`` to ``True``. This might be useful for
-installations where a file root has a very large number of files and performance
-is impacted.
-
-.. code-block:: yaml
-
-    fileserver_limit_traversal: False
-
 .. conf_minion:: hash_type
 
 ``hash_type``