Backing Up Your Data
Salesforce is so reliable and available, it is easy to forget to back up your data locally. Lately, I’ve was reminded that it is a good idea to back up your Salesforce data from time to time. Salesforce allows administrators to download a complete export up to once a week.
It isn’t that you have to fear for the Salesforce database crashing or being lost. I recommend downloading for a couple reasons:
- It could help if you ever accidentally make unintended changes to data and want to return to an earlier state.
- It could also be helpful in the event that Salesforce or your internet access ever goes “down” at a critical time – you’d have a way to access your data offline.
To download the backup, go to Setup (Administration) | Data Management | Data Export. Click the button – a while later you’ll get an email with a link to download your data file. Save it somewhere safe.
Alternatively, if you use Demand Tools, you can back up to a file as often as you like. I use this to create a copy of the database in a Microsoft Access file.
I too have recently learned the importance of backing up data! Thanks for the heads up on the Demand Tools option for backing up–that’s a feature I hadn’t explored yet.
It’s easy to just trust in Salesforce.com…I need to get better about backing up my data and make it clear to folks that they should be backing up their own. Hopefully we’ll never need it, but if we do we’ll really need it.