References module doesn't specify/read a pager limit when field is using a view to generate potential references
I haven't found a neat general solution to this issue, but in terms of a specific solution you can use hook_query_alter. Basically in one of my bespoke modules I added the following:

/**
 * Implements hook_query_alter().
 */
function bespoke_module_query_alter(QueryAlterableInterface $query) {
  if ($query-&gt;hasTag('views_autocomplete_for_ref_files')) {
    $view = $query-&gt;getMetaData('view');
    if ( !empty($view) &amp;&amp; $view-&gt;current_display == 'references_lead_image_by_default' ) {
      $query-&gt;range(0, 10);
    }
  }
}



  NOTE: Awkwardly there doesn't seem to be an ability of SelectQuery to get back the current range settings. The code could be more general if it could detect that no limit was set.


Out of the above views_autocomplete_for_ref_files is the machine name of the reference list view, and references_lead_image_by_default is the name of the display. I can focus on the default display because I have code elsewhere that switches the view in use depending on certain contexts. The default display is never actually used by the site, except when it is requested by the Views UI (because the widget hook below is not used for the Views UI display).

/**
 * Implements hook_field_widget_form_alter()
 *
 * Modifies the autocomplete path for autocomplete widgets
 */
function bespoke_module_field_widget_node_reference_autocomplete_form_alter (&amp;$element, 
    &amp;$form_state, $context) {
  $instance = &amp;$context['instance'];
  $field = &amp;$context['field'];
  /// only step in if the field uses a view to populate
  if ( $field['settings']['view']['view_name'] == 'autocomplete_for_ref_files' ) {
    /// switch the view display depending on content type
    if ( (arg(0) == 'node') &amp;&amp; ($node=node_load(arg(1))) &amp;&amp; ($node-&gt;type) ) {
      $field['settings']['view']['display_name'] = 
        'references_lead_image_for_' . $node-&gt;type;
    }
    /// hijack the current autocomplete path to point to our own callback
    $element['nid']['#autocomplete_path'] = 
      $instance['widget']['settings']['autocomplete_path'] . '/' . 
      $instance['entity_type'] . '/' . $instance['bundle'] . '/' . $field['field_name'];
    /// hijack the autocomplete validate function, to validate with our own criteria
    $element['nid']['#element_validate'] = 
      array('bespoke_module_node_reference_autocomplete_validate');
  }
}


I'll keep looking to see if I can find a more general solution.