How to export your Salesforce data

To export your Salesforce data, open Setup, search for Data Export, choose Export Now, include files and select Include all data. Salesforce emails when the ZIP files are ready and keeps them for 48 hours. Keep the official export instructions open while you work.

Who runs it and how long it takes

• Who: a user with the Weekly Data Export permission. Salesforce gives it to the System Administrator profile by default. The user must be active.
• Editions: weekly exports in Enterprise, Performance and Unlimited; monthly exports in other editions except Database.com. Professional and Developer Editions can generate backup files only every 29 days.
• Before you start: check when the last export ran, because Salesforce offers Export Now only when enough time has passed since the last one.
• Limits: a manual export runs once per 7 days on weekly editions and once per 29 days on monthly ones. Sandboxes are not supported. Salesforce's FAQ says there is no SLA for Data Exports, that a request may take longer than a week, and that support cannot expedite an export.

Before you start, read How to export your Slack workspace and How to export your Xero data.

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The steps

1. In Setup, type Data Export in Quick Find and open Data Export.
2. Select Export Now and choose the encoding.
3. Tick Include images, documents, and attachments.
4. Tick Include Salesforce Files and Salesforce CRM Content document versions.
5. Under Exported Data, select Include all data, then Start Export.
6. When the email arrives, return to Data Export and download every ZIP. Wait at least 60 seconds between downloads: Salesforce returns HTTP 429 when they come faster. Salesforce's export article says it can require a CAPTCHA, while its FAQ says the CAPTCHA access check is deprecated, so you may or may not see one.
7. Check the ZIP files against Salesforce using the checklist in the next section.
8. Run the removal tool on your own computer and review the items it flags, as described in the section after that.

What you get

• ZIP files of up to approximately 512 MB each, holding CSV files for your objects and your files.
• The Recycle Bin is excluded, and Chatter text is cut at 1,000 characters.

Check the export against Salesforce before you run the removal tool

Do this on your own computer, with the ZIP files as Salesforce delivered them.

1. Unzip every file into one folder and list the CSV files with their sizes. Salesforce says each ZIP "contains one or more .csv files", so this list is the object manifest. Write down which object each file covers.
2. Compare the manifest with the objects your team uses. If an object you use is missing, such as a custom object created after a scheduled export was set up, run the export again and select Include all data. Read the warning under "If the export looks incomplete" first.
3. For the main objects (accounts, contacts, opportunities and cases), run a report in Salesforce that counts the records and compare the number with the data rows in the matching CSV. Use the same object, the same filters and the same deletion state in both. Salesforce leaves the Recycle Bin out of the export, so a report that includes deleted records shows more rows. Investigate any other difference.
4. If you ticked both file boxes, open the file folders next to the CSV files and confirm that files are there. Salesforce says that without the boxes you "may receive fewer files than with a complete data export".
5. Write a note with the export date, the user who started it, your edition, the options you ticked and the number of ZIP files. Add what Salesforce leaves out: formula and roll-up summary values, the Recycle Bin, and Chatter posts and comments cut at 1,000 characters.

What the removal tool does on your computer

You, or whoever runs your systems, run the removal tool on your own computer and review the flagged items there. You upload only the cleaned package; your original export, review queue and review decisions stay on your computer. We accept the package after checking its manifest, file hashes, completed review and specified personal-data patterns. These checks do not guarantee that all personal data has been removed.

For a Salesforce export, the items worth a close look when you review are contact names, account numbers and Chatter text (how personal data is removed).

If the export looks incomplete

• Files are missing. Check that both file boxes were ticked. Before you run the export again, download what you have: queuing a new export removes the files from the previous one, and a manual export is limited to once every 7 days on weekly editions and once every 29 days on monthly ones, so a new run may not be available straight away.
• A new custom object is missing. A scheduled export keeps its old selection; select Include all data again.
• The download link is gone. The 48 hours passed, or someone started a new export. Salesforce says files are available for 48 hours after completion in one article, and that ZIP files are deleted 48 hours after the email is sent, not including weekends, in another. Download as soon as the email arrives, and treat the earlier of the two clocks as your deadline. Run it again if the link is gone.
• The export fails or never arrives. Do not remove the permission from the user who started it or deactivate that user, because Salesforce checks their access during the process and the export can fail. Salesforce also says heavy traffic can delay delivery.
• Formula fields show no values. The export does not include formula or roll-up summary values. Check the underlying fields in your Salesforce org.

If you are not sure you hold the rights to license what is in the export, read why we ask for an export.

Sales teams rarely keep everything in one place. If your pipeline also lives in HubSpot or Pipedrive, the HubSpot export guide and the Pipedrive export guide cover those accounts, and cases that start in Zendesk are covered in the Zendesk export guide.