PRO Tip: Spring ’25 and Summer ’25 Release Updates

Spring '25 Release Updates

We've previously shared release updates for the Spring '25 release, which will be live in all orgs on or before mid-February, but there have been some late-breaking cancellations and delays.

First, Salesforce has cancelled enforcement of the Enforce Rollbacks for Apex Action Exceptions in REST API update, although they do still recommend that orgs adjust custom code and enable it to align with development best practices. They now term this update as "recommended but not enforced."

Joining that update in this category are two others:

Disable Ref ID and Transition to New Email Threading Behavior: Salesforce has been on a multi-year journey to change threading behavior for emails tied to records. You may still see a banner directing you to transition to Lightning Threading, and Salesforce does recommend making the transition despite the enforcement delay.
Transition to the Lightning Editor for Email Composers in Email-to-Case: Salesforce has massively upgraded the email editor for Email-to-Case users in Service Cloud, enabling new functionality like printing, full screen mode, and better toolbar controls. While recommended, there is no specified date on which Salesforce will force you to adopt the new editor.

There is a second update, Enable Secure Redirection for Flows, that was originally announced for the February release but no longer appears in the list of updates that will be enforced. The detail page for the update, however, does still say it will be enforced in the Spring release so this may simply be a documentation issue to clean up–we'll keep an eye on changes to the release notes.

These two items have been delayed, so you should still plan on addressing them before the new enforcement date:

Migrate to a Multiple-Configuration SAML Framework: this only applies to orgs that use SAML single-sign on, and only in certain configurations. Basically, if you don't see this release update in your Salesforce org, it does not affect you. But if it is present, you must complete it before the Spring '26 release, otherwise SSO will stop working for your org!

For Field Service orgs, Salesforce has clarified the enforcement timeline for transitioning to newer-style Maintenance Work Rules. This update will now be enforced in the Winter '26 release:

Migrate from Maintenance Plan Frequency Fields to Maintenance Work Rules: for users of Field Service, this is a potentially big change. Maintenance Plans have been able to generate recurring schedules in two different ways; either by using Frequency fields found on the Maintenance Plan record itself, or by using newer, Maintenance Work Rules that offer more flexibility in defining recurring schedules. Salesforce has been deprecating these old fields for years and originally announced they would finish the process in Winter '25.

These remaining items will be enforced in the release:

Spring '25 Release Updates

These items will be enforced in the Spring '25 release, which will be pushed to orgs in January or February 2025:

Change Einstein Activity Capture Permissions for Sales Engagement Basic Users: the Sales Engagement Basic User permission set no longer includes access to Einstein Activity Capture. If you've relied on assigning this permission set to grant EAC licenses, you'll need to provide those permissions in another way (e.g. through another permission set). Note that this change took effect on January 1.
Enable LWC Stacked Modals: to improve page load performance in the browser, Salesforce is converting more of the user interface from legacy Aura components to Lightning Web components. That change means minor changes in the appearance of the UI for all users, and has special implications for developers building custom quick actions in either Aura or LWC.
Enable ICU Locale Formats: This has been enforced on a rolling basis since Spring '24. Salesforce is converting its backend handling of Locale settings for things like dates, times, and currencies from the Java Development Kit (JDK) format to the ICU format set by the Unicode Consortium to comply with industry standards. This may lead to minor adjustments to data presented to users. It could also affect custom Apex code, or unmanaged packages that haven't yet been updated–but all managed Apex packages should have been updated to comply.
Enforce View Roles and Role Hierarchy Permission When Editing Public List View Visibility: users have long had the ability to create and edit list views on Salesforce objects (like the Accounts or Contacts tabs) if you granted the appropriate permission. As part of that process, they can also specify who can see the list view. Historically, those users have been able to see the org's full role hierarchy as a matter of course. Salesforce is now separating those permissions; meaning that if a user needs to grant access to a list view and see the role hierarchy, they'll need to have both permissions applied to either their Profile or via a Permission Set.
Enhance Flexibility and Reusability in Prompt Flows: for orgs using AI Flows, Salesforce is changing the way templates work. Previously, you were able to use Flex prompt templates, which had specific defined input values that couldn't be changed. Salesforce is replacing these Flex prompt templates with more generic template-triggered prompt Flows. This change will require editing existing flows that leverage the older Flex prompts.
Review and Update Settings to Capture Leads from LinkedIn: this is a change that was mandated by LinkedIn's changes to its Lead capture APIs. If your org leveraged LinkedIn Lead forms, you need to disable your existing integration and change the settings to continue capturing Leads. This change was effective as of December 16, 2024.
Sort Apex Batch Action Results by Request Order: if you run an action that submits a large number of records to the queue (say, 1,000), Salesforce breaks those records into batches (for example, 200). If you query the result of the operation, Salesforce will show you the five batches and whether they were successfully processed. Until this release, if any batch encountered errors, Salesforce would return it at the front of the results to your query. With this release, that behavior is changing; now any batch that encounters errors will show up in the order in which it was originally received by Salesforce for processing.
Update API Requests to Use Your MyDomain Login URL: the implementation of MyDomain was completed in 2022, but Salesforce continued to redirect calls to its APIs that pointed to the old URLs. These redirections will end on June 14, 2025, so double-checking them and updating any that still point to old URLs is a time-sensitive item.
Use an Apex-Defined Variable for All Intelligence Signal Types: this is a newly-added feature for Service Cloud Voice customers, which allows admins and developers to capture intelligence signal data (e.g. a caller is frustrated) and process it inside Flows; this, for example, lets you feed data to Next Best Action recommendations.
Verify Your Return Email Address for Sender Verification: to comply with increasing email security standards, Salesforce will stop sending emails on behalf of users that have not verified their addresses. This shouldn't affect many users (because most verify their addresses as part of account setup), but you can run a report of any users who haven't done so by reporting on the User Verified Email field, and sent those users the verification email from their User profile. Note that there is no release update in Setup for this item.

We've embedded a video covering the original Spring '25 release items below.

Summer '25 Release Updates

These items will be enforced in the Spring '25 release, which will be pushed to orgs in January or February 2025:

Enabled a Modernized Record Experience in Aura Sites: enabling new Lightning Web Component elements in Aura Experience Cloud sites improves performance and accessibility for assistive technologies, but may lead to minor appearance difference such as field shading and the alignment of buttons. Be aware of these changes and if they affect any training materials or other documentation.
Enable Secure Roles Behavior and Update Sharing Group References in Sandboxes (Release Update): by default, in orgs that have not yet enabled a Digital Experience site, the standard sharing group is Roles and Subordinates. To improve security settings for sites that enable an Experience site, this default group will now be labeled Roles and Internal Subordinates, and will not share records to external users when the site is created. Admins who adjust sharing settings need to be aware of this change, and any custom code that references the old group label will need to be adjusted.
Evaluate Criteria Based on Original Record Values in Process Builder: this change has been delayed several times. Process Builder has always had a processing glitch for records that have null values; if the Process sets the value, re-evaluating that field won't use the original null value, it will instead use the value set as part of the Process. Salesforce is fixing this issue, forcing the Process to use the original value. Rather than fixing affected Processes, it probably makes more sense to transition them to Flow, given the end of support date of December 31, 2025 for Process Builder.
Run the Lightning Knowledge Migration Tool: Salesforce will retire the Classic Knowledge product in 2025. Before that retirement, users of Classic Knowledge need to transition to Lightning Knowledge using the migration tool and transition guide.
Salesforce Platform API Versions 21.0 Through 30.0 Retirement: This is another item that has been on the calendar for several years. Salesforce is retiring API versions older than 30 (which corresponds to the Spring '14 release). When this retirement occurs, making calls to services like the REST or SOAP API and specifying a version older than 30 will begin to fail. This is an uncommon configuration for orgs that do not have large amounts of custom code.
Update Your Trusted URLs for the Latest CSP Directives: Salesforce had previously announced (and cancelled) a release update called Adopt Updated Content Security Policy (CSP) Directives. To improve security when embedding contents in sites, Salesforce has upgraded its Content Security Policy default settings. This improves security, but may cause issues loading desired elements like fonts and images hosted on external servers. To fix these issues, you need to add the allowed sites to Trusted Sites in Setup; this release update greatly enhances reporting on potentially affected servers.
Verify SAML Integrations: Salesforce continually upgrades its SAML frameworks to increase security, which is good for everybody. But, some upgrades coming in Spring '25 may cause issues with client SAML configurations. Salesforce highly recommends testing SAML configurations in Spring '25 preview sandboxes, which should become available in November or December.
Enable Secure Roles Behavior and Update Sharing Group References in Sandboxes: