Long Text Area Field Character Limit Error Caused by Newline Counting in Salesforce UI

Root Cause

When a user presses Enter in the Salesforce UI, the system inserts both a Carriage Return and a Line Feed character (CRLF), counting as 2 characters. Automation processes like Flow insert only a Line Feed (LF), counting as 1 character. This mismatch means text populated by automation near the field's character limit may exceed the limit when a user attempts to edit and save it in the UI.

Workaround 1: Allow Margin for Character Limit

Design automation processes (such as Salesforce Flow) to populate Long Text Area fields with content that stays well within the field's character limit — for example, targeting no more than 80% of the maximum limit. Alternatively, increase the character limit of the Long Text Area field to a value with sufficient margin above the expected maximum input.

Workaround 2: Remove or Replace Newlines

If the error message "Data value too large" appears when saving in the UI, delete unnecessary blank lines in the text field to reduce the character count. Each removed newline reduces the UI character count by 2.