Salesforce upgrade release schedule FAQ

FAQs

What is the Salesforce release schedule?
Salesforce delivers new features three times a year. The seasonal releases occur in Spring (February), Summer (June), and Winter (October). To learn more about Salesforce releases, see the Salesforce Release Readiness Strategies Trailhead module.

How can I get early access to the upcoming release via the Salesforce release schedule?
Salesforce provides early access to upcoming releases via a sandbox preview. The time between the sandbox preview release and the production release is 4–5 weeks. We encourage you to test the new release in your sandbox preview instances as soon as possible.

Can I delay the push upgrade to production?
No, upgrades are scheduled according to the Salesforce release calendar.

Can I opt out of automatic upgrades?
No, automatic upgrades are mandatory as outlined in your Salesforce contract.

When is my Salesforce application upgraded? 
Salesforce upgrades to new releases three times each year. The upgrade aligns with the maintenance schedule, which is published one year in advance. You get the upgrades in February, June, and October, in line with the Salesforce seasonal releases.

When are sandboxes upgraded?
Salesforce upgrades sandboxes three times each year. The upgrade aligns with the maintenance schedule published one year in advance. Salesforce upgrades sandbox preview instances 4–5 weeks before the release. These upgrades are in January, May, and September. Salesforce upgrades sandbox non preview instances with production in February, June, and October. See the Get Early Access with the Sandbox Preview Trailhead module.

Do I receive regular maintenance releases?
Yes, Salesforce upgrades your sandboxes and production regularly. As with the seasonal releases, maintenance releases are applied automatically to sandboxes and production.

Are new features automatically enabled?
New features that can impact existing implementations that are disabled by default. These features require you to take action to enable, reducing the impact on existing customizations.

Is there a rollback mechanism if a major regression in my integrations or customizations occurs?
It’s impossible to roll back a managed package installation. It’s critical to ensure that all scenarios are tested in full-copy sandbox preview instances before the production release. If an issue is found, Salesforce responds to cases logged by customers to determine the root cause. Any issues that are caused by Salesforce code are resolved in maintenance releases to all instances.

What’s the downtime during the automatic upgrade?
Automatic upgrades are silent with zero downtime. Automatic upgrades are planned during your off-peak hours and weekends to avoid subscriber impact. A best practice is to avoid scheduling any admin-related transactions during the upgrade windows that are communicated to you in advance.

How does Salesforce ensure changes are backward compatible?
Salesforce has invested in extensive testing and automation to ensure backward compatibility. In scenarios when an automatic upgrade fails, Salesforce deploys a patch that upgrades the packages. New features that impact existing implementations are disabled by default and require you to act to enable them, reducing the impact on existing customizations.

How are patches delivered?
Patches are delivered weekly or as needed. They’re automatically applied to sandbox preview instances followed by production. All customers receive the patches and please note that production patches are on a staggered delivery based on the Customer's region.

How are fixes provided in the sandbox environment during the sandbox preview?
Salesforce applies patches and fixes to the sandbox preview environment on a regular cadence.

How are static scripts handled with automatic upgrades?
The static scripts included in the packages will not be automatically overridden. New versions of the scripts may be included in the packages. The release notes will notify you about that. It is the customer's responsibility to manually merge their changes with the new script version and deploy the new version manually.

How do I make sure any customizations I have are not overwritten?
Please take a backup of your managed package data raptors if you have modified them, this is a best practice for you so that you do not lose your customizations. This is a best practice across all Industries, but crucial for Communication Cloud, Media Cloud, and E&U Cloud.

How do I get on automatic upgrades?
To be eligible for automatic upgrades, the org needs to be on the latest GA production release to be picked up for automatic upgrade during either the patch release cycle or major release cycle. 

What is the impact of not being on automatic upgrades?
A customer who is not on automatic upgrades will be considered non-compliant and may be impacted by the following:

• The customer may no longer be contractually eligible for technical support. If a customer opens a ticket with Technical Support, the Support team will direct them to first upgrade to the latest GA release in production.
• Older managed package versions will no longer be available to access online in Help & Training.
• APIs for older managed package versions will be retired in June 2025. Implementations that continue to use older technology will stop working. Details here.