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Create an archive policy

Creating a policy has three stages: build the scope → review the pre-flight → set the policy. Nothing is deleted from Salesforce until the policy actually runs.

1. Build the scope​

  1. Go to Archive and click Create archive policy.
  2. Pick the org. The visual scope builder opens against its live schema.
  3. Add a root object — the cold records you want to move — and tick relationships to archive related records together. Give each object a filter that defines "cold", for example Status = 'Closed' AND ClosedDate < LAST_N_YEARS:2.
  4. Click Continue to policy. Your scope is saved as a draft and the pre-flight opens.

[SCREENSHOT REQUIRED: Archive scope builder with a root object and a date-based filter]

The builder is the shared Data Studio — see Building a scope.

2. Review the pre-flight​

The pre-flight page shows three cards:

  • Scope review — every object with its filters and record counts, plus a Preview that opens the matching records in your live org.
  • Relationships affected — click Analyze relationships to find records that would be cascade-deleted when an in-scope parent is archived: children in master-detail relationships that are not in your scope. Those records would be lost without being archived — the analysis lists each one with the linking field and the number of records at risk, so you can add the child object to the scope and capture them too.
  • Policy settings — see below.

[SCREENSHOT REQUIRED: Archive pre-flight with the relationships-affected analysis]

Take the relationship analysis seriously

Salesforce deletes master-detail children together with their parent. If a child object isn't in your archive scope, its records disappear from Salesforce without a copy. Add the object to the scope — that's the entire point of the warning.

3. Set the policy​

In Policy settings:

  • Name the policy.
  • Files — toggle Archive linked files too to delete a record's file once its last linked record is archived (a file still shared with a record outside the archive is always kept).
  • Schedule — frequency (One time, Daily, Weekly), hour, timezone, and day of week for weekly policies.
  • Storage destination — a bluefactory-managed region or your own cloud storage.
  • Notifications — email on every run, or failures only.

Click Create archive policy. Scheduled policies run at their configured time; you can also run one on demand from its page.