Last Updated: January 27, 2025
In today’s world where businesses are becoming multifarious, customers are demanding personalized services. To consistently meet evolving customer demands & stay ahead of competitors, technology adoption at an early stage is elemental. Salesforce, being the #1 CRM in the world has been embraced by thousands of businesses around the globe to drive forth innovation & digital transformation. However since it is a multi-tenant environment, there are certain restrictions in place to maintain the speed & performance of the platform.
Though maintaining separate files & accounts for each customer is beneficial for delivering personalized experiences, it results in a large volume of files accumulating within Salesforce, which takes up a lot of storage space. Most businesses experience Salesforce storage limits exceeding within the first two years. Managing large volumes of files in Salesforce is a daunting task that brings a lot of related challenges.
We will highlight a few common industry use cases where businesses found it difficult to manage a sheer number of files in Salesforce. We will also discuss the strategies they implemented to optimize their Salesforce file storage to prevent hitting their storage limits. Before discussing the Salesforce file storage challenges & solutions, let’s have a look at how much file storage space you get in Salesforce.
Storage Limits in Salesforce
Also Read: Top 3 Ways To Prevent Hitting The Salesforce Storage Limit In Your Org
What are the Types of Storage in Salesforce?
Salesforce primarily provides two types of storage: Data Storage and File Storage.
Salesforce Data Storage stores data related to opportunities, contacts, accounts, events, etc.
Salesforce File Storage holds attachments, documents, and images.
Handling data and file storage in Salesforce are completely different. In this blog let’s understand Salesforce file storage, what contributes to Salesforce file storage, and the key factors to consider when managing it.
The Salesforce Files (formerly Chatter Files)
Before Salesforce Files there were the Chatter Files. Chatter is majorly focused on enabling users to collaborate seamlessly and enable easier cooperation through a social enterprise environment.
Files are an intrinsic part of document collaboration, hence, Salesforce files integrate Chatter with Salesforce CRM Content and allow users to access and share the files stored there. Using the Salesforce files, individuals can upload files privately until they have decided upon sharing them. They can also subscribe to files and get notified when a file has been updated. The process of sharing can be done in the following ways:
- Sharing with an individual
- Sharing with the existing groups of people inside Salesforce
- Sharing with link
- By indirectly, attaching a Salesforce file to the Chatter feed of a record, as mentioned previously
The Salesforce documentation is true that you also have control over the access permissions. Files in Chatter can be:
- Completely private – No access at all
- Shared with viewer permissions – Viewer permission to access
- Editable by collaborators – Collaborator
- Fully shared – With the owner
Salesforce CRM Content
This option is often used to store marketing materials or support-related documents. It allows you to store templates, standard marketing collaterals, and corporate files that sales or support teams can use when interacting with customers. Team members can easily customize these templates and use them per their requirements. Additionally, you can be part of multiple libraries and access them through the Libraries tab.
This is not it, you can also see them under the Salesforce Files tab. Users can also attach a file stored in a Library, directly to the Chatter Feed of a record. One drawback that can be registered here, is that you cannot have nested folders. Each Library will be like a flat folder in which you are not allowed to have sub-folders.
The Salesforce Attachments
One more traditional way of storing Salesforce files is Salesforce Attachment which allows you to attach files and documents to individual records. This works well when short sales cycles are generated, with a small number of files per record. The file size is also limited to 25 MB per file. Posting a file in the Chatter feed will automatically show it in the notes and attachment section of that specific record.
The Documents
This is where you can store web resources like logos, HTML banners, and also Visualforce materials. These are generally such resources, which you plan on using for email campaigns and also for any images that are to be used in a template.
How Did Your Salesforce File Storage Limit Exceed?
Let’s have a look at how companies generate files and what consequences they face once they accumulate a large volume of files in their Salesforce org.
Dealing with a large volume of old files
If you have been using Salesforce for a long time, you must find a large chunk of obsolete files. These files might be related to old customers, closed cases, lost accounts, old email attachments, etc. Though your sales or service team does not require these files, they reside within the app and occupy storage. This results in storage shortages over time.
Generating a large number of files on a daily basis
If you have a huge Salesforce standard user base (sales & service) and they upload a large number of files daily, you might run out of allocated file storage space faster than usual. This might happen to specific industry customers such as healthcare, financial, logistics, legal, and insurance who deal with more documents. All these industries also deal with files that are larger in size.
Giving file upload access to community users
Enterprises with community users and giving them access to upload files encounter rapid file growth compared to others. If the community user number is high, file growth within Salesforce happens faster. These can be your customers, partners, employees, vendors, etc.
Using 3rd-party AppExchange applications
If you are using 3rd-party AppExchange solutions to achieve certain business goals, you will find those apps generating files internally and getting stored in Salesforce file storage. This is a common use case & having control over this becomes tough at times.
Salesforce File Storage Challenges
Are you experiencing any of the above storage issues? Do you feel that unmanaged file growth & rapid storage consumption in your Salesforce org might be a challenge in running a smooth business? Before we talk about how this can be avoided, let’s have a look at some familiar consequences when a Salesforce customer runs out of file storage.
- With storage, the cost grows. Storage upgrades come at a high cost which is not a sustainable plan.
- A large number of files makes any Salesforce org messy degrading user experience along with efficiency.
- Collaboration takes a blow resulting in low productivity.
- Limited file visibility and accessibility can disrupt the sales and service processes.
- More files in a bulky org results in slow application performance.
- Meeting compliance demands becomes a challenge when you can’t keep all your files in your control & access.
Salesforce Storage Limit Exceeded?
No matter what the reason behind your Salesforce app hitting its file storage limits is, there’s always a solution. One of the best ways to combat this challenge is to move out the files & attachments from the primary file storage to a long-term, less expensive secondary storage. Salesforce files & attachments, both historical and new, can be migrated to different external storages of your choice.
With the large file export technique, a large chunk of files can be offloaded either periodically or in a single go from your Salesforce storage to secondary file storage options like SharePoint, Amazon S3, OneDrive, Google Drive, etc. File archiving in Salesforce is another popular way to get rid of storage limits. Similarly, Salesforce customers can also move files in real-time to their external storage. Files from standard users, community users, and 3rd-party integrated apps can be managed & Salesforce file storage can be easily optimized.
Overcome Salesforce Storage Limit With XfilesPro
Now you know Salesforce file storage can be easily managed with external storage collaboration. Implementing this for smooth business workflows, security, accessibility, collaboration, ROI, etc. is a primary consideration. XfilesPro, the #1 file management application for Salesforce is the most advanced and easy-to-use file management application in AppExchange. Customers can integrate Salesforce with an external storage system that automatically stores Salesforce files & attachments of any type.
XfilesPro Integrates with popular External Storage Systems
➢ Microsoft SharePoint
➢ Amazon S3
➢ Microsoft OneDrive
➢ Google Drive
File Upload Type using XfilesPro
➢ Manual Drag & Drop: Simply drag and drop files to upload them. No more extra steps or downloads needed.
➢ Automated: Set pre-defined criteria to automate file movement.
➢ Single File or Bulk File Uploads: Move one document or 100 at a time.
➢ Large Volume File Offloading at Once: Easily migrate large files with a single click, without losing quality or shrinking the content.
Additional Features of XfilesPro
➢ Folder Structures: Organize files into customized or default hierarchies of folders and subfolders.
➢ Bi-directional Sync of Files/Folders: Automatically updates files and folders in two locations so that changes in one are reflected in the other.
➢ File Sharing: Share files securely with internal or external users by sending them password-protected document access.
➢ Trigger Utility: Automate the creation of folder and subfolder for each new record as it’s created.
Benefits
Cost Savings
XfilesPro has helped businesses reduce storage costs by 90% by offloading files from Salesforce to more affordable external storage solutions.
Improved Platform Performance
By moving large volumes of files out of Salesforce, XfilesPro ensures the platform runs faster and more efficiently enhancing user experience.
Advanced File Management Features
XfilesPro offers folder structures, bi-directional sync, bulk file uploads, and folder syncing, making file management organized and efficient.
File Accessibility
Users can access, manage, and share files directly from Salesforce, even though they are stored externally. The integration ensures that teams collaborate effectively without switching between platforms.
If you want to learn more about XfilesPro & transform your file management experience in Salesforce, please get in touch with our experts now. For live demos, please connect with our sales team here.
FAQs
Buying additional storage space can get expensive fast. A smarter option is to integrate your Salesforce org with your existing storage system using XfilesPro.
When Salesforce storage is full, Org performance slows down and extra storage costs more. XfilesPro helps by storing files in an external storage system, keeping things organized and accessible.
