Salesforce Recycle Bin: Everything You Need to Know

13 May 2022

3 min read

Anju George

Considering how critical Salesforce is in helping sales and support teams perform their tasks, it is essential for IT administrators to understand how the Salesforce recycle bin works, and take required measures to proactively prevent data loss.

What happens when you delete Salesforce data

When Salesforce data is deleted, it moves to the Salesforce recycle bin. It stays here for 15 days after which it is permanently deleted. By default, all administrators can view and recover data that is deleted across the organization. While users can view and restore records in their own Recycle Bin, they must be provided the ‘Modify all data’ permission to restore deleted data of other users.

To learn how to recover Salesforce data from the Recycle bin, click here.

salesforce recycle bin- deletion flowchart

Storage in the Salesforce recycle bin

The number of records allowed in your recycle bin is calculated based on your organization’s Salesforce storage allocation. Your recycle bin can contain approximately 25 times your MB storage capacity. For example, an organization with a storage allocation of 1,000MB (1GB) can have 25,000 records in the Recycle Bin (25 x 1,000 = 25,000 records).

Limitations of the Salesforce recycle bin

Versioning: You cannot restore previous versions of the record. In other words, if a user accidentally overwrites data before deleting it, they will only be able to recover the latest, modified version of the record.
Time crunch: Deleted data is only available for 15 days after the date of deletion, beyond which it is permanently deleted.
Metadata lost: Reports, customizations, and other metadata are not stored, and cannot be recovered. They must be recreated from scratch in case of accidental modification/deletion.
Object relationships not intact: Salesforce clearly mentions that the restores only apply to lookup relationships that have not been replaced.

Do you need a data backup solution for Salesforce?

Companies lose Salesforce data all the time. That’s why there are plenty of backup options - some automated, others manual. Relying on Salesforce recycle bin borders on insanity!

Accidental deletion: Both admins and users may accidentally delete an important record.
Mass Data Import/Export: Tools like Data Loader help modify a large number of records in no time. It just takes one careless mistake to result in large scale data loss.
Rogue Automation: A corrupted Apex Trigger or Process Builder can overwrite data causing mass data loss.

Why SysCloud?

SysCloud creates automatic backups for all standard or custom Salesforce objects, metadata, Apex triggers, and chatter. Object relationships are maintained during restoration, and data can be recovered from any point-in-time backup snapshot.

Smarter backups: Automate backups and let SysCloud handle all API errors so you can just focus on other critical admin tasks

Unlock your recoveries: Compare and track changes between backup snapshots and restore any version of your Salesforce data.

Maintain relationships: Restore Salesforce objects and relevant attachments with all their relationships intact.

Click here to learn more about SysCloud backup for Salesforce.

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