Brandy the fox holding up a snowboard in the snow.

Admin Release Countdown: Get Ready for Winter ’23

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Are you ready, #AwesomeAdmins? It’s almost time for the Winter ’23 Salesforce Release!

Below are the most important dates you’ll want to mark in your calendar. You can also review release dates and sandbox preview information on the corporate blog.

Image of Winter '23 milestone dates.

August 11: Get early access by signing up for a pre-release org

Admins can sign up for a pre-release Developer Edition environment, which is full of all the Winter ’23 features to explore to your heart’s content. Developer environments are stand-alone environments where you can learn, build, and get comfortable with features and functionality. If you already had a pre-release org for Spring 22, you can log back into that one.

August 17: Review the Release Notes

Search the products you use for release updates in the Release Notes section of Salesforce Help. The notes will go live August 17, 2022, and we will share the link here.

Get help from the community! With each release, there are a number of blogs by community members who break it down. Check out the Release Readiness Trailblazer Community Group where you can continue to get updates, share your favorite features, and ask questions about the upcoming release.

August 25 before 6 p.m. PT: Be sure to refresh your sandbox

Once you’ve explored the pre-release org and reviewed the Release Notes for features that are important to you, it’s time to try out features related to your customizations in your sandbox. This is a great time to evaluate how specific features may be useful or impact the way your organization uses Salesforce.

During each release, there is a group of sandboxes slated to remain on the non-preview instance (i.e. the current release) while there is another group of sandboxes that will upgrade to the preview instance.

Use the Salesforce Sandbox Preview Guide to determine the plan for your sandbox instance(s). Below are screenshots of the tool where you can search by sandbox instance and then specify what you want to do with your sandbox — stay on the non-preview or move to preview. It will then instruct you to refresh your sandbox to get to the desired instance or that there is no action needed because your sandbox is slated for the desired instance.

The Salesforce Sandbox Preview Guide with the ability to search a sandbox instance.

Image of desired actions for the sandbox.

If you want to learn more about this process and why you should be on a sandbox preview, take the Get Early Access with the Sandbox Preview Trailhead module.

If your sandbox is not slated to be updated to preview, take action before 6 p.m. Pacific Time on May 5 to get early access to all the Winter ’23 features in one of your sandboxes. Check out this Help Article for instructions on exactly how and when to refresh your sandbox.

August 26 and 27: Sandbox preview begins

Check your sandbox instance on Trust for your sandbox upgrade window. Just like the pre-release org, sandbox preview gives you the opportunity to test new features against your own customizations without affecting your live environment.

Now is a good time to check out Release Updates in Setup. This is where you go to review and activate release updates to improve org performance, security, business logic, and usability. See which items need your action, which updates are due soon or overdue, as well as updates that have been archived.

September 19: Learn MOAR about Winter ’23 features

Check out the #LearnMOAR page for new trailmixes for admins and developers that feature highlights of the Winter ’23 Release.

September 20-22: Release Readiness Live at Dreamforce

RRL is IRL – In real life at Dreamforce, that is! For the first time ever, join product experts and evangelists LIVE at #DF22 for a one-hour deep dive into the highlights from the Winter ’23 release. They’ll demo some of your favorite features, including what’s new with Flow, DevOps Center, permissions and user access, and more. Learn about these new features and then ask your questions in a live Q&A.

Date: September 22
Time: 3:00-4:00 PM PT
Location: Moscone West Level 2 Keynote Room
Speakers: Gillian Bruce, Diana Jaffe, Adam White, Cheryl Feldman, Larry Tung, Karen Fidelak, and George Murnock

Bookmark the session in-person here.
Join us online here.

September 9, October 7, October 14-15: Winter ’23 arrives!

Check the Maintenance Calendar for exactly when your Salesforce org will get the Winter ’23 features. Scroll through the list and check your Salesforce instance (NA__, EMEA__) against the release dates listed in the calendar. Once the release window has passed for your environment, you’ll have access to the newest features in your production environment!

More resources

  • Check out the Release Resources page for all the resources you need to help prepare your org and users.
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