Excel Add-In from Connect for Office End of Support

What changed?

To continue using the Excel Add-In, you must upgrade to Connect for Office v1.8.1.6 by February 24, 2017, to meet the new standard certificate requirements and to ensure product authenticity.

It’s important to note that the timeline for the end of support of the Excel Add-In from Connect for Office has not changed. Salesforce discontinued technical support, bug fixes, or enhancements for the Excel Add-In after March 4, 2017.

What happened after the End of Support date?

Where Connect for Office is running on Windows Vista, Salesforce’s disablement of TLS 1.0 may result in Excel failing to establish a login connection to Salesforce, and the inability for you to pull and sync data from Salesforce into new or existing Excel files.


What was the replacement, and what are the key differences between the legacy product and the replacement?

Customers are encouraged to transition to one of the alternatives:

1. Select a solution from the Salesforce AppExchange – Identify an alternative solution from the Salesforce AppExchange by searching for the following keywords: Excel, export data. NOTE: Additional purchase may be required.
    
2. Microsoft Power BI or Microsoft Power Query – Leverage the connector to Salesforce made available there. NOTE: Both solutions currently limit the number of Salesforce records to 2,000 records per export to Excel.
    
3. CSV file export – Export a CSV file directly from Salesforce

What action do I need to take? 

Salesforce encourages using Excel Add-In from Connect for Office to upgrade your users to Connect for Office v1.8.1.6 before February 24, 2017, to avoid service disruption.

If you can't transition users by February 24th, upgrading your users to Connect for Office v1.8.1.6  will let users continue using the feature until March 4, 2017. By March 4, 2017, however, you should identify and transition your users to an alternative to minimize the disruption to the use of this functionality.


How did I identify the affected users?

To identify users of Excel Add-In from Connect for Office, Salesforce admins can access the Login History page in Setup, export results, and filter them by Application.


How did I identify users using Excel Add-In from Connect for Office?

This feature is the Excel plug-in downloaded from the user’s personal settings in Salesforce (Click your name > My Settings or Settings. From Quick Find, search for "Connect for Office.”)

Why did we retire these products?

Connect for Office is only supported on Microsoft Windows Vista, which does not support TLS 1.1 or higher. As such, the disablement of TLS 1.0 by Salesforce drove us to the decision to end support for Excel Add-In from Connect for Office functionality.

Where can I get more information?

Join the discussion in the Productivity Success Community group.  

If you have more questions, open a case with Support via Salesforce Help. To view all current and past feature retirements, see Salesforce Feature Retirement.

To read about the Salesforce approach to retiring products and features, read our Feature Retirement Philosophy.