How to Back Up Salesforce – Complete Guide 2023

Salesforce is probably the most important tool for the revenue-generating team of your company. It enables your management to monitor the sales pipeline, predict income, and plan the team’s efforts. Losing this data or file systems can hamper or even paralyze sales activities and make it necessary to recover lost data. In this article, we’ll explain in greater detail how to back up Salesforce with native and third-party tools.

How to back up Salesforce with native tools

If you hesitate whether or not to back up your Salesforce, please read our article dedicated to Salesforce backup.

Salesforce has multiple tools for data backup and recovery. The key problem is that they’re siloed and don’t meet the needs of large enterprises. Most of them provide a CSV file that should be manually imported back if some data or file systems are lost.

Furthermore, native tools don’t fix the major need of most clients because they don’t back up metadata. Metadata represents the relations between different objects in Salesforce. Losing this type of data due to a developer’s mistake can cause days or even weeks of downtime for your sales team. That’s why if you want a more advanced Salesforce backup solution we suggest scrolling down to our section dedicated to SpinOne.

Let’s take a look at the most popular ones.

Backup Salesforce with Data Loader

Short summary:

• This tool works with Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, and Developer editions
• Data: Salesforce Object

• Metadata: no.
• Backup file type: CSV.
• Deleted records: soft-deleted
• Archived data: yes.
• Multiple objects backup: no.
• Schedule: no.

To back up Salesforce data:

1. Go to Data Loader and click Export or Export All (for archived and soft-deleted data).

2. Login using your credentials and click Next.

3. In the pop-up window choose the Object you want to back up. Check the ‘Show all objects’ box if you haven’t found the object you want to back up.

4. Create a new CSV file for export or choose the existing one. Click Next.

5. Select the Query Fields you want to back up. Here you can also create Conditions for the query. You can check what you chose in the text field below. Click Finish.

6. The pop-up window will inform you of the completion of the operation and any errors. Click ‘View Extraction’ to open your file in CSV viewer or other programs of your choice. 

Data Backup in Salesforce with Data Export

Short summary:

• Tools work with all editions except for database.com.
• Weekly backup: only Enterprise, Performance, and Unlimited Editions
• Monthly backup: all.
• Data: all.
• Metadata: no.
• Backup file type: CSV in zipping.
• Scheduled backup: yes every 7 or 29 days depending on your edition.

Back up Salesforce data step-by-step:

1. Log in to your Salesforce. Then click on the gear in the right upper corner and choose Setup in the drop-down menu.

2. On the Setup page, use the search field on the left side of the screen to find Data Export. Upon clicking on it you will be redirected to the Export Service page.

3. Click on Export Now if you want to back up immediately and if your time limits allow it. Otherwise, click Schedule Export to complete the backup.

4. You will get to the Export page. Now, pick the encoding for your file. Select the types of data you want to back up or just keep Include all data.

4a. Here you can also include additional data (like images or documents). Keep in mind, however, that it will increase the processing time.

4b. If you plan to import your file, select Replace carriage returns with spaces.

5. Click Start Export or Save.

If you schedule a backup, click Schedule Export and pick the date of your export and the frequency (if you have weekly exports available).

6. Wait for an unspecified amount of time for an email with a ZIP file to come.

Further reading: Salesforce data recovery tools.

How to backup data in Salesforce with SpinOne

Short summary:

• SpinOne works with all editions.
• Backup frequency: limitless 
• Data: all.
• Metadata: yes.
• Sandbox: yes.
• File type: data is copied as it is to a remote storage
• Automated backup: yes every 1 or 3 days depending on your subscription type.

Get an automated Salesforce daily backup of your data and metadata

Try SpinOne!

How to backup data in Salesforce with SpinOne:

1. Log in to SpinOne. Next click on the Salesforce section in the left column.

2. You will be forwarded to the backup page. Here you can manage your organizations. Click Add Organization and pick Production or Sandbox in the drop-down menu.

3. Once you’ve added your organization, you can manage the backup settings. Check the box next to your organization and then click Autobackup in the right corner.

4. In the pop-up window, select your Full backup day and the types of data you want to backup.

5. In addition to that, SpinOne will automatically backup changes in your data once a day. If you want to increase the number of snapshots per day, go to Account Settings and select the backup frequency.

Learn how to recover data with SpinOne.

SpinOne vs. Salesforce Native backup Tools