Salesforce Updates, Releases & Mandates
Several times a year, Salesforce changes how your system works, and some changes come with firm deadlines. Miss one and the apps connected to your Salesforce can quietly stop working. Here’s what’s coming, what it means for you, and what to do.
What’s coming
Action needed
Some older connections to Salesforce will stop working
First deadline: December 1, 2026
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What’s happening?
Salesforce is switching off an older way that outside apps and tools sign in to your Salesforce. Connections still using it will stop working.
Salesforce calls this the “SOAP API login() retirement” and has emailed many organizations about it.
Key dates
Connections using the old sign-in fail unless a special permission is turned on for them.
Stricter security checks begin. If nothing has used the old sign-in in the past six months, Salesforce turns it off, so a tool you only run once a year could fail. (Test copies of Salesforce change on December 15, 2026.)
The old sign-in is removed. Anything still using it stops working.
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Is my organization affected?
Possibly, if any of these sound familiar:
- You got an email from Salesforce titled “ACTION REQUIRED: Update Unsupported Platform SOAP API login()”.
- Other apps connect to your Salesforce, such as fundraising, email, accounting or form tools, especially ones set up years ago.
- Someone built a custom connection for you.
- You’re not sure. That’s normal, and it’s what our check is for.
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What can I do?
- Make a list of the apps and tools connected to your Salesforce.
- Ask each app’s vendor whether it still signs in with “SOAP API login()”, and when their update will be ready.
- Ask whoever manages your Salesforce to review its login history for sign-ins that use the SOAP API.
- Aim to finish before December 1, 2026, the first deadline.
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How can North Keel help?
If you’d rather hand it off, we’ll take care of it:
- We find which of your connections are affected and give you a plan with dates.
- We keep everything running through the December and January deadlines.
- We reconnect your apps the new, secure way and test everything before switching over.
Most organizations need one of two packages: Essentials (the check, the December fix and up to two apps reconnected) or Complete (adds up to two custom-built connections).
Source: Salesforce Help, “Platform SOAP API login() Retirement & new Security Requirements” (updated October 9, 2026). Dates are Salesforce’s and can change; we confirm them for your org.
Action needed
Salesforce’s fall release: changes that need your attention
First change: November 1, 2026
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What’s happening?
Salesforce updates every account automatically three times a year. This fall’s update (Winter ’27) changes how connected apps stay signed in, can stop some users from sending email, and sets end dates for older features like Salesforce for Outlook.
The risk: an app quietly stops syncing and nobody notices for weeks.
Key dates
WhatsApp messages that used to be free, such as replies to people who message you, are now charged per message.
Apps that haven’t connected to Salesforce in 30 days lose their connection and must be reconnected. Apps that sync monthly, quarterly or yearly are most at risk. (Test copies of Salesforce change from October 21.)
If Salesforce Support once turned off email address checks for your users, that ends. Users who haven’t confirmed their email address can no longer send email from Salesforce.
An older kind of event message used by some custom connections is retired. Moving to the new kind takes one click, but messages pause while it runs.
Salesforce for Outlook, the older add-in that syncs Outlook email, contacts and calendars, is retired. Salesforce moved this date up from December 2027.
More older ways for apps to sign in with a username and password stop working.
Salesforce to Salesforce, a feature for sharing records between two Salesforce accounts, is retired. PDFs that Salesforce builds for you, such as donation receipts, are made a new way, and public forms and sites get stricter privacy settings for visitors.
Lightning Sync, which keeps Outlook or Google calendars and contacts in step with Salesforce, is retired and must be replaced.
Older-style app connections must be moved to Salesforce’s new kind.
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Is my organization affected?
Possibly, if any of these sound familiar:
- Other apps connect to your Salesforce, especially ones that sync only now and then.
- Your Outlook or Google calendar syncs with Salesforce, or staff use the Salesforce for Outlook add-in.
- Salesforce Support once turned off email address checks for your users.
- You message people on WhatsApp through Salesforce.
- Salesforce creates PDFs for you, such as donation receipts or letters, or you have a public form or site built on Salesforce.
- Your connections were set up years ago, or by someone who’s no longer around.
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What can I do?
- Make a list of the apps connected to your Salesforce, and note any that sync only monthly, quarterly or yearly.
- After November 4, 2026, check that each app is still syncing, and reconnect any that stopped.
- Ask each app’s vendor whether it signs in with a username and password, and when it will move to a supported sign-in (before February 20, 2027).
- Before December 1, 2026, ask whoever manages your Salesforce to look in Setup under Release Updates for “Maintain Your Email Verification Exception”. If it’s there, follow its steps so staff can keep sending email.
- If staff use Salesforce for Outlook, plan the move to Salesforce’s newer Outlook integration before January 30, 2027.
- If Outlook syncs with Salesforce, check that the connection uses Microsoft’s newer method (Microsoft Graph). Microsoft retired the old one in October 2026.
- If your Outlook or Google calendar syncs with Salesforce through Lightning Sync, plan its replacement during 2027.
- If you use WhatsApp through Salesforce, check your message volume so the new charges don’t surprise you.
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How can North Keel help?
If you’d rather hand it off, we’ll take care of it:
- Release review: before each Salesforce update, we check what changes for you, test your key apps and automations, and give you a short to-do list with dates.
- Reconnect: we reconnect anything that needs it and move older connections to the new kind, tested before going live.
- Monthly support: clients on a support plan get each release reviewed as part of their hours.
Source: Salesforce Winter ’27 Release Notes. Dates are Salesforce’s and can change; we confirm them for your org.
Every release: what’s new and worth using
Three times a year, each Salesforce release also brings new features and improvements. Many organizations are asked to report what’s worth using to their board or leadership, which is a big job on top of everyday work. We can take it off your plate.
Readiness review
What might break: we check the release against your Salesforce, test your key apps and automations, and give you a short to-do list with dates.
Feature briefing
What’s new: we pick the features worth using in your Salesforce, explain what each would take to switch on, and give you a board-ready slide deck and a one-page summary.
Release package
Both together for one release, for less than buying them separately. Or choose the yearly plan to cover all three releases.
How we handle every change
Whatever Salesforce announces, we follow the same three steps, so you’re never caught off guard.
Check
We look at your Salesforce and tell you exactly what a change affects, so you know what’s at risk.
Protect
Quick fixes keep everything running through the early deadlines while the lasting fix is planned.
Fix
We build the lasting fix in a sandbox, a safe test copy of your Salesforce, never directly in your live system. Every change is tracked, so it can be undone if anything goes wrong.