Do you backup your MetaData? I've been doing it for years but now there's a much easier way!

If you do regular data backups, you may say... I don't need to do metadata backups, right?. NOT TRUE! Data backups don't backup metadata. Never considered it? This blog is the jist (really the whole thing) of the most simple way I know to do it.

Blog: https://mighyforce.dreamhosters.com/2024/02/code-builder/

Video: https://youtu.be/QD0ia5fBWbk

(While on YouTube, why not subscribe? There are a dozen or more mightyforce videos there already!)

This way to do metadata backup that isn't a distraction and actually teaches you a core skill and gives you a core tool that I bet you'll be using for other things within a year. (hint hint... dev ops aren't just for developers anymore)

Do you use sandboxes for backup? Me too... until Salesforce broke them for this purpose...

For years, I’ve had the strategy of backing up Metadata once a quarter to a sandbox that I never touch. But now Salesforce deletes them after 6 months so I can’t keep a year. This seems unacceptable as a metadata backup. I’ve tried to log into them but to be honest, it's very hard to log into an old sandbox when your password keeps changing. And with all the MFA and focus on security, it's just about impossible to get into a sandbox that isn't recently refreshed. Refreshing it defeats the purpose of the metadata backup in the sandbox. I’ve tried to make it my junior intern's job, but they can’t do that unless they were in the org when it was created. So basically the sandbox as backup has failed for us.

I've known I could do backup using all the cool DX stuff from the developer world for a few years now, but I've watched and waited for a simple way to do it that wasn't a distraction and was simple enough I though every admin could do it. We... it's here now!

And yes... I've tried each of the lower cost backup solutions suitable for small nonprofits... none made me very "happy" about backup. Each each feels like a distraction. Few keep the data as archive. (The only time I actually needed my data backup so far was when I discovered a serious user error 6 months later that corrupted our data set... the archived saved my bacon!).  Only recently do any of the backups address metadata. So I'm still downloading my weekly data backups zips for that purpose.

Enjoy!

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