Your Salesforce storage probably isn’t something you think about every morning until a storage limit alert pops up. While database growth often happens quietly in the background, proactive tracking prevents system slowdowns and unexpected licensing fees.

Key Takeaways

• Primary Storage Types: Salesforce splits capacity into Data Storage (records like Cases, Emails) and File Storage (attachments, files).

• Top Bloat Drivers: Automated integrations, high-volume EmailMessage records, and historical Case data consume the majority of space.

• Best Practice Strategy: Track monthly growth trends rather than total percentages alone, and implement an automated archiving solution like DataArchiva before hitting hard limits.

And that’s usually when teams realize the problem isn’t that they suddenly created too much data. Salesforce storage usage has been quietly growing in the background for months or even years.

The good news? You don’t need to wait until you’re at the limit to take action.

This guide walks you through how to monitor Salesforce storage usage, what to look for, and how to turn storage monitoring into an actual data management strategy.

What Does Salesforce Storage Usage Actually Tell You?

Salesforce storage usage metrics track how much space your organization consumes across two main categories: 

• Data storage: Records stored in Salesforce objects.

• File storage: Salesforce Files, attachments, and other stored content.

Checking both matters because your org can have plenty of one while getting dangerously close to the limit on the other.

Read the detailed Salesforce Data Storage Guide.

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How Can You Check Your Salesforce Storage Usage?

Salesforce gives administrators a native way to check storage consumption. To view your current Salesforce storage limits and consumption:

1. Log in to Salesforce as an Administrator.

2. Navigate to Setup (gear icon).

3. Type Storage Usage in the Quick Find box and select Storage Usage.

4. Review both Data Storage and File Storage breakdowns by object type.

From there, you can review your organization’s storage consumption and see how much capacity is being used.

This is your starting point for monitoring Salesforce storage usage.

But don’t just glance at the percentage and close the page. Look at the details.

If your organization is using 75% of its available storage, for example, that number means very different things depending on whether usage has increased 2% or 15% over the past few months.

Which Salesforce Data Is Using the Most Storage?

Here’s where storage monitoring gets interesting.

A Salesforce org might look perfectly healthy until you discover that a few high-volume objects are doing most of the damage.

Common storage-heavy areas include:

• EmailMessage records.

• Cases.

• Salesforce Files.

• Attachments.

• Activities.

• Custom objects.

• Historical records.

• Integration-generated records.

EmailMessage records deserve particular attention for Service Cloud teams. Email-to-Case can generate a steady stream of emails and related records, meaning storage can grow even when your users aren’t manually creating new records.

Read more: XIM: The Email Management Solution Built for Salesforce Service Cloud Admins

The same thing happens with integrations.

Your team might create 100 records a day manually, while an integration creates thousands behind the scenes.

How Often Should You Monitor Salesforce Storage?

There’s no magic number that works for every Salesforce org.

A small org with slow data growth might check monthly. A large Service Cloud environment generating thousands of Cases and emails may need much more frequent monitoring.

A simple approach is to establish a baseline.

For example:

Now you’ve got a story.

Storage isn’t simply “high.” It’s growing consistently.

That gives your Salesforce team time to investigate what’s driving the increase and decide what needs to happen next.

What Should You Do If Salesforce Storage Keeps Increasing?

Don’t immediately start deleting records. That can create a much bigger problem.

Historical Salesforce data may still be important for customer service, reporting, compliance, audits, or future analysis.

Archive & Backup in Compliance with European Data Privacy Regulations Download the Datasheet

Instead, ask three questions:

Does This Data Still Need to Live in Salesforce?

If users actively work with the data every day, keeping it in Salesforce makes sense.

But if a record hasn’t been touched in five years and users only need it occasionally, keeping it in your primary Salesforce environment may not be necessary.

Can Unnecessary Data Be Removed?

Look for:

• Duplicate records.

• Obsolete records.

• Unused attachments.

• Test data.

• Unnecessary integration data.

Only delete data after confirming that it isn’t required for business, legal, compliance, or reporting purposes.

Could Historical Data Be Archived?

This is where Salesforce data archiving becomes useful.

Instead of deleting valuable historical records, organizations can move older, less-active data out of their Salesforce production environment while retaining access when needed.

How Can You Turn Storage Monitoring Into a Long-Term Strategy?

Monitoring shouldn’t happen only when Salesforce sends up a warning flag. A better approach is to connect storage monitoring with your Salesforce data lifecycle.

Ask:

What happens when data is created?
→ It enters Salesforce.

What happens when it’s actively used?
→ It remains accessible to users.

What happens when it becomes historical?
→ It moves into an appropriate archive or retention strategy.

What happens when the retention period ends?
→ It can be securely deleted according to your policies.

That gives your Salesforce storage strategy an actual lifecycle instead of making storage cleanup a yearly fire drill.

When Should You Start Archiving Salesforce Data?

The worst time to think about archiving is when you’re already out of storage.

If your Salesforce storage usage is consistently climbing, historical data is piling up, and users rarely access older records, it’s worth evaluating an archiving strategy before storage becomes an emergency.

This is especially important for organizations dealing with large volumes of:

• Closed Cases.

• Historical Opportunities.

• EmailMessage records.

• Activities.

• Audit records.

• Old customer data.

The goal isn’t simply to use less Salesforce storage.

The goal is to keep Salesforce focused on the data your users actually need while preserving the historical data your business still values.

What Is the Biggest Mistake Salesforce Teams Make With Storage?

They monitor the percentage, but not the trend.

Knowing that you’re at 70% tells you where you are. Knowing that you’ve gone from 45% to 70% in six months tells you where you’re heading.

That’s the difference between reacting to a storage problem and managing it.

What Should You Track Every Month?

At minimum, keep an eye on:

• Total data storage used.

• Total file storage used.

• Storage percentage.

• Highest-consuming objects.

• Month-over-month growth.

• New data sources and integrations.

• Archived vs. active historical data.

A simple storage dashboard or recurring admin review can make this much easier.

How Can DataArchiva Help Reduce Salesforce Storage Pressure?

If monitoring shows that historical data is driving your Salesforce storage growth, DataArchiva can help you move beyond simply watching the numbers.

Check it out on AppExchange!

Instead of deleting valuable historical Salesforce data, DataArchiva enables organizations to archive older data while preserving its relationships and making it accessible when needed.

That means your Salesforce org can stay focused on active business data without treating historical information as something you have to throw away.

Monitor your Salesforce storage today. Plan your archive before storage becomes a problem.  Request a demo or Try it free!