Prepare to Convert State, Country, and Territory Data

Converting existing data allows you to keep working with the data after you switch to picklists. For example, say you have a report that culls all your sales reps’ leads in Washington state. The report is generated from state picklist value Washington. To ensure that records with text-based state values such as Wash., WA, and Washington are included in the report, convert text-based state data to standardized picklist values.

Converting existing state, country, and territory text data into standardized picklist values helps ensure data integrity after you enable picklists in your organization. Your users encounter validation errors when saving records that contain state, country, or territory values that aren’t in your picklists. Also, reports become unreliable when records created before you enable state and country/territory picklists contain different state, country, and territory values than records created using picklists.

When you convert data, Salesforce starts with countries and territories, then goes on to states. As you go through the conversion process, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Save frequently. You can exit the conversion tool and return to it at any time.
• You can continue to work normally in your organization while converting data.
• You can’t convert data while you’re scanning for affected data and customizations, or while state or country/territory picklists are being deployed.
• Steps can be repeated and undone at any time until you enable the picklists for users. After the picklists are enabled, you can’t undo the conversion.