Salesforce for Outlook Data Set Record Limit of 5000 — Contacts Not Syncing or Syncing Randomly

The following workarounds help you reduce your data set size below the 5,000-record limit per query, or help you prioritize which records are included in each sync batch.

Workarounds

• By using the Selected Contacts option, you can potentially synchronize a higher number of records:
  • If you select the Users Contact Records option, you can sync 5,000 Contacts from this source.
  • If you also select Users Contact Records on Opportunities and these Contacts are not the same as the Contacts owned by the sync user, this increases the data set to a potential 10,000 records.
• Based on the filter options you select and the 5,000-record limit per query, there may still be Contacts that do not sync to and from Outlook because they are above the query limit. To work around this, use the Filter By Additional Objects and Fields filter to lower the size of the data set and sync a more streamlined group of Contacts.
• To assist in creating data sets, use the Get Record Count check to see how many records any user syncs based on the Data Set you have created. Note: if records in the queries exceed the 5,000-record limit, the ones that sync are to some extent random — this is where the Filter by Additional Objects option is useful.
• Keep in mind when creating Data Sets that the query mechanism also spiders records related to records in your Data Set and syncs them as well. For example, if you are syncing Events in your Data Set, the Contacts related to these Events also sync as part of your Contact sync.
• Records related to fields in your mappings also sync. For example, Contacts that Report To some of the Contacts you are syncing also sync as part of your Data Set. Spidering can only extend 3 levels deep.

Important Note

In all the above examples, you need to have at least read access to any of these records to be able to synchronize them using Salesforce for Outlook.

Person Accounts and the 5,000-Record Limit

If you have Person Accounts enabled in your organization and have more than 5,000 records in Salesforce, the Data Set works differently.
The 5,000-record limit applies to every query (the limit is not necessarily on the number of records ultimately returned). Salesforce for Outlook runs the Account query first to get accounts that match any filter criteria, then runs the Contact query to get Contacts assigned to those accounts that match the Contact filter. If either query hits 5,000 records, the sync returns a random set of 5,000 and some expected records may not be included.
Step-by-step example — An organization has Person Accounts enabled. The Outlook Configuration syncs Contacts as follows:

1. Step 1: Select all Accounts where field 2 (an Account field) equals value 2. If you have more than 5,000 person accounts, you hit the 5,000-record limit per query. In this case, a random 5,000 records matching the criteria are returned, and some expected records may not be included.
2. Step 2: Select Contacts related to the Person Accounts selected in Step 1 where Contacts match the filter: field 1 equals value 1. Because only 5,000 person account records were randomly selected in Step 1, you get fewer Contacts in Step 2 than you would get if all accounts matching the criteria had been selected.