Salesforce Sandboxes are powerful tools for development and testing, they come with a few limitations that developers and administrators should be aware of. Understanding these sandbox limitations can help you better plan your deployment and testing strategy.

Sandbox Limitations

LimitationDescription
Refresh Intervals– Developer & Developer Pro: Once per day.
– Partial Copy: Every 5 days.
– Full Sandbox: Every 29 days.
Limits on refresh interval can cause delays in accessing the latest production data.
Storage and Data Limits– Developer: 200 MB data and files.
– Developer Pro: 1 GB data and files.
– Partial Copy: 5 GB data (sample data).
Limits restrict comprehensive testing due to limited data access.
Data Masking– Sensitive data is copied in Full and Partial Copy sandboxes without masking.
Manual masking is needed to ensure data privacy and regulatory compliance.
Limited Sandbox Types Per Org– Limited number of sandboxes based on Salesforce edition.
Additional sandboxes may need to be purchased, which could increase costs.
Copying Data Takes Time– Full Sandboxes can take hours or days to create, delaying testing activities.
– Partial Copy also takes significant time to prepare.
Email and Integration Restrictions– Outbound emails are disabled or redirected by default to prevent accidental blasts.
External integrations may need reconfiguration within the sandbox environment.
No Real-Time Synchronization– Sandboxes do not sync with production in real-time.
Any new production changes after sandbox creation won’t be reflected until the sandbox is refreshed.
Licenses and User Access– Not all production users have automatic access to sandboxes.
– User licenses count against your total Salesforce license limit.
API Limitations– API limits are lower in sandboxes compared to production environments.
Heavy integration tests can sometimes hit these limits, especially in Developer sandboxes.
Deployment Code Coverage– Deployments require a minimum code coverage of 75%.
This requirement can delay the deployment process if proper test coverage isn’t met.
Testing Data Differences– Limited data in Developer and Developer Pro sandboxes can lead to inadequate testing.
Lack of real-world data might make it difficult to replicate production issues.
Dependency on Sandbox Refresh for Metadata– Metadata changes in production are not reflected in sandboxes unless they are refreshed.
This can lead to discrepancies between sandbox and production environments.

1. Following table describes Sandbox Storage limits

Sandbox TypeStorage Limit
Developer Sandbox200 MB
Developer Pro Sandbox1 GB
Partial Data Sandbox5 GB and maximum 10,000 record per selected object.
Full CopySame Storage limits as your production organization.

To know about storage usage in your organization follow below steps.

Setup -> data management -> click on storage usage.

2. Sandbox refreshing limits

Sandbox TypeYou can refresh
Developer SandboxOnce per day
Developer Pro SandboxOnce per day
Partial Data SandboxYou can refresh a Partial Data sandbox 5 days after you created or last refreshed it. If you delete a Partial Data sandbox within those 5 days, you need to wait until after the 5 day period, from the date of last refresh or creation, to replace it.
Full copy SandboxYou can refresh a Full sandbox 29 days after you created or last refreshed it. If you delete a Full sandbox within those 29 days, you need to wait until after the 29 day period, from the date of last refresh or creation, to replace it.