Nothing makes an IT team cringe more than hearing someone say they can’t see their data. When the sales team needs those deleted notes or when reps can’t quickly enter the data they need while out in the field, operations can come to a grinding halt. As a result, employees will soon be knocking down your door wondering how to fix the problem.
If you’re an admin trying to answer the question, “How do I recover lost data in Salesforce?” we’ll show you a few tricks you can try to get the ball rolling on the data recovery process.
How Do I Find Deleted Items in Salesforce?
If all you did was delete some items, you’re in luck. Salesforce has a built-in solution for deleted records called the Salesforce Recycle Bin. If you’re a Salesforce Administrator, the recycle bin will let you see and access the entire organization’s data. You can simply enter your search terms to find your deleted items, check the box next to the item, and click “Undelete” to restore records.
There are limitations to this method, though. Deleted data is only stored for 15 days (30 days when you enable the “Extended Recycle Bin Retention” feature on Salesforce Classic) and then the metadata will be lost and must be manually restored. These limitations make the Salesforce Recycle Bin functionality good for the occasional accidental record deletion but a challenge as a data protection strategy.
How Can You Recover From Data Loss in Salesforce?
Are you still wondering, “How do I recover lost data in Salesforce?” If so, that may be because the previous option isn't what you need. The Recycle Bin can get your data back, but it is also quite limited and tedious to use. Fortunately, there are other options Salesforce users can try for data backup and restore.
One alternative is the Salesforce Data Export service. This is available every month for all users, while Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited edition users can back up their data weekly. This is a manual process, and you only have 48 hours to download all your files. Once they disappear, they cannot be retrieved.
Note that all data export jobs are queued according to size. The process could also take more than a week to complete, as every object is in a separate CSV file. As soon as you queue up a new data export, the previous files are removed, even if you’re still within the 48-hour download window.
If you’d rather not use Data Export, you can try the Data Loader. This is an API client that is native to Salesforce. However, similar to the Recycle Bin, you can only retrieve one record at a time with this tool.
Finally, there’s always Salesforce Backup, a native solution that allows you to configure a backup policy with just a few clicks. You can include standard and custom objects in addition to any records, files, and attachments you want covered in your daily backups. The backup feature also allows you to selectively restore what you need. You can review and compare backups before you restore as well. You’ll receive a notification once your restoration job is finished.
Keep in mind that while Salesforce Backup is one of the platform’s better solutions, it comes with a few considerations. It doesn’t support all objects, including those not supported by the Bulk API, records stored in big objects and standard objects that lack certain system fields. Also, the use of custom objects and encryption can complicate the process and result in some data not being backed up and restored.
How Can Own Help With Backing Up & Restoring Salesforce Data?
Salesforce has several options for backing up and restoring lost data. Recycle Bin and Data Loader can be great if you’ve only lost a few records. For more regular backups, weekly data exports or the Salesforce Backup feature are more appropriate.
If you’re looking for a more comprehensive solution, Own can help. Our backup and recovery solution for Salesforce automates backups with complete copies of data and metadata and notify you immediately when anomalies are detected. Request a demo today and experience stress-free data backup and recovery.
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