How to Identify Data for Archiving in Salesforce (A Step-by-Step Guide)

Imagine a Salesforce org that has been running for seven years.

At first, every record mattered. Sales teams needed their Opportunities, service teams needed their Cases, and managers needed recent Activities at their fingertips. But years later, the org is carrying millions of records, many of which nobody has touched in months or even years.

The problem isn’t that the data is useless. It’s that not all Salesforce data needs to remain operational.

The real question becomes: What data should you archive, and how do you decide?

The best data to archive in Salesforce is usually information that has lost its day-to-day operational value but still needs to be retained for reporting, historical reference, compliance, or business continuity. The answer depends on six signals: age, activity, business value, compliance, storage consumption, and access frequency.

What Data Should You Archive in Salesforce?

Let’s say a customer Case was closed three years ago.

Nobody on the service team has opened it since. It isn’t connected to an active escalation. The customer relationship is still important, but the Case itself isn’t part of today’s workflow.

That’s a much stronger archive candidate than a two-year-old Opportunity that a sales rep still reviews every week.

Archive What You Don’t Need In Active Salesforce Storage. Get The Guide!

This is why identifying Salesforce data for archiving shouldn’t start with a simple rule like “archive everything older than three years.”

Instead, evaluate whether the record is:

• No longer actively used.

• Part of a completed business process.

• Rarely accessed.

• Still valuable for historical purposes.

• Safe to remove from the active Salesforce environment.

• Subject to a defined retention requirement.

Read more: How to Build a Long-Term Data Archival Strategy for Salesforce

In other words, old doesn’t automatically mean inactive, and inactive doesn’t automatically mean disposable.

Which Salesforce Archive Criteria Actually Matter?

A useful archive decision combines multiple signals rather than relying on one field.

How Old Is the Salesforce Data?

Ask Yourself: What Is Historical Data in Salesforce? Age is an easy place to start.

Review fields such as:

• Created Date.

• Last Modified Date.

• Last Activity Date.

• Closed Date.

• Completion Date.

But age alone is a weak Salesforce archive criterion.

A record created five years ago could still support an active customer relationship. Meanwhile, a record created last year could already be irrelevant because the underlying business process ended.

Use age to find candidates, not to make the final decision.

Are the Records Still Active?

Status often tells you more than age.

Look for inactive Salesforce records with statuses such as:

• Closed.

• Completed.

• Cancelled.

• Expired.

• Inactive.

• Discontinued.

For example, thousands of closed cases with no activity are worth reviewing.

DataArchiva can help organizations apply defined criteria to recurring archive jobs instead of relying on manual record selection every time.

Recommended Read: What Happens to Attachments When You Archive Salesforce Records?

Does the Business Still Need the Data?

Here’s the simplest test:

If this record disappeared from the active Salesforce environment tomorrow, would a business team actually notice?

If the answer is yes, investigate why.

Historical data may still support:

• Customer disputes.

• Sales history.

• Audits.

• Financial analysis.

• Customer service.

• Historical reporting.

The goal isn’t to eliminate valuable information. It’s to move information that no longer needs to participate in everyday operations.

How Does Access Frequency Affect Archiving?

Think about your Salesforce data in three buckets:

This is one of the most useful ways to identify Salesforce data for archiving.

A record that nobody opens during normal operations doesn’t necessarily need to occupy the same operational environment as data users depend on every day.

DataArchiva supports access to archived records, allowing organizations to separate historical information from constantly used operational data without treating the information as permanently inaccessible.

Should Storage Consumption Determine What You Archive?

Standard Salesforce Data Storage is capped at 10 GB to 20 GB for most enterprise editions (with additional storage costs accruing per gigabyte). Prioritizing high-volume objects like Tasks (Task), Events (Event), and closed Cases (Case) yields the fastest relief against system storage caps.

Cut Salesforce Storage Costs by 60–80% with DataArchiva. Get the Free Datasheet!

That sounds like an obvious target.

But before archiving, ask:

• Are those records still being used?

• Are they referenced by active processes?

• Are they needed for reporting?

• Do they have retention requirements?

Also read: Data Retention vs Data Archiving in Salesforce

High storage consumption should help you prioritize what to investigate, not automatically determine what gets archived.

This approach is particularly useful when identifying data to archive in Salesforce across large enterprise orgs.

Which Salesforce Records Are Common Archive Candidates?

Different objects become inactive at different points in their lifecycle.

These aren’t universal rules.

For example, an inactive Account could still be strategically important to a business. Likewise, historical opportunities may be essential for revenue analysis.

That’s why strong Salesforce archive criteria combine data characteristics with actual business context.

How Does Compliance Change What You Archive?

Here’s where things get interesting. A record can have zero operational value and still have significant retention value due to compliance.

A company might not need an old Case for daily customer service, but still need it for an audit or contractual requirement.

Before deciding what data to archive, ask:

• Does the record have a legal retention requirement?

• Is it covered by an internal policy?

• Is it needed for an audit?

• Does the business need historical access?

• When can it legally be deleted?

This distinction matters:

Archive ≠ Delete

Archiving moves data out of the active operational environment while preserving it for a defined purpose. Deletion is a separate decision that should happen only when the applicable retention requirements have been satisfied.

Also Read: Salesforce Data Archiving vs Deletion: How Enterprises Can Make the Right Choice

How Can You Score Data for Archiving?

Instead of relying on one “archive after X years” rule, create a simple scoring model.

The strongest candidates usually sit toward the right side of the table.

For example:

Closed Case + 4 years old + no activity + rarely accessed + no active dependencies

is a much stronger candidate than:

Closed Case + 4 years old + accessed every month by service managers.

This scoring approach makes identifying Salesforce data for archiving a business decision instead of a guessing game.

What Should Your Salesforce Archive Decision Tree Look Like?

When admins need to evaluate thousands or millions of records, a simple decision tree can keep the process consistent.

DECISION TREE 

Is the record still actively used?

→ Yes: Keep it operational.

→ No: Continue.

Has the business process ended?

→ No: Keep it operational.

→ Yes: Continue.

Is the record required for legal, compliance, or contractual reasons?

→ Yes: Retain and evaluate for archiving.

→ No: Continue.

Is it accessed frequently?

→ Yes: Review business requirements.

→ No: Continue.

Does it have active dependencies?

→ Yes: Resolve dependencies before archiving.

→ No: Archive candidate.

This gives Salesforce admins a repeatable framework instead of leaving archive decisions to personal judgment.

How Should You Validate Data Before Archiving?

Finding the right data to archive in Salesforce is only half the job.

Before approving an archive set, validate:

Are Related Records Still Needed?

Check parent-child relationships and related records.

Archiving one record while leaving critical related information behind can make historical data difficult to interpret.

DataArchiva is designed to preserve Salesforce data relationships during archiving, helping maintain the context of historical records.

Are Active Processes Using the Data?

Check whether records are referenced by:

• Automations.

• Integrations.

• Reports.

• Workflows.

• Business processes.

A record that looks inactive to an admin may still be important to another system.

Have Business Owners Reviewed the Criteria?

Salesforce admins understand the technical side. Business teams understand the operational side. Get input from the people who actually use the data before finalizing your Salesforce archive criteria.

How Can DataArchiva Help Identify Archive Candidates?

Once your organization knows what qualifies as an archive candidate, the next challenge is applying those rules consistently.

DataArchiva supports criteria-based Salesforce data archiving, scheduled archive jobs, relationship preservation, monitoring, search, and restoration.

For example:

Closed Case → No activity → Meets archive criteria → Scheduled archive → Monitor → Access when needed

This means teams can turn their definition of inactive Salesforce records into a repeatable process rather than manually reviewing the same data every quarter.

The important part is that your business decides what should be archived. DataArchiva helps operationalize that decision.

Also Read: Salesforce Data Archiving with DataArchiva: Complete Guide

What Is the Right Data to Archive in Salesforce?

The right data to archive in Salesforce isn’t simply your oldest data. It’s data that has crossed an important line:

It no longer needs to be operational, but it still has value worth preserving.

• Use age to identify candidates.

• Use activity to understand whether they’re still operational.

• Use business value to determine whether they matter.

• Use compliance to understand retention requirements.

• Use storage consumption to prioritize large datasets.

• And use access frequency to understand whether users actually need the data in their everyday Salesforce workflows.

When these signals point in the same direction, you’ve got a strong archive candidate.

That’s what effective Salesforce archive criteria should accomplish: not deciding what data is “old,” but identifying what data has finished its active business life. Book a Demo to learn more!

Frequently Asked Questions 

What Is The Difference Between Archiving And Deleting Salesforce Data?

Archiving moves inactive data out of primary Salesforce operational storage into a secure secondary storage system while maintaining accessibility for compliance or historical reporting. Deletion permanently removes the data from Salesforce with no option for retrieval after the recycle bin expires.

Which Salesforce Objects Take Up The Most Data Storage Space?

Typically, Task, Event, Case, EmailMessage, and custom transactional objects consume the largest portion of data storage in mature Salesforce orgs.

Will Archiving Data Break My Salesforce Reports Or Dashboards?

If reporting relies on live operational records, archived data won’t appear unless your archiving solution (such as DataArchiva) offers unified reporting access or secondary query capabilities.