Scratch Org Snapshots

How Snapshots Fit in the Development Lifecycle

Because a snapshot is a point-in-time copy of your scratch org, it’s static. To update your snapshot, delete it and create another snapshot.

You can create a snapshot from only a scratch org and, conversely, you can create only scratch orgs from a snapshot. Snapshots have the same 200-MB data storage limit as scratch orgs. A snapshot isn’t meant to replace source-driven development or a version control system. You continue to follow best development practices by externalizing and modularizing your project source.

Snapshots and scratch orgs don’t replace sandboxes for user acceptance testing. A snapshot is intended to contain the static dependencies of a project, and not the entire happy soup of your production org.

Snapshot Allocations and Limits

Snapshots are associated with a Dev Hub org. Therefore, you must use the same Dev Hub org when you create the scratch org from the snapshot.

• The number of snapshots you can create is the same as the active scratch org allocation based on edition type.
• Snapshots expire after 90 days. When a snapshot expires or is deleted, its status is updated automatically and its license becomes immediately available.
• Snapshot data is retained for 100 days. When a snapshot expires, it’s associated data is deleted 10 days later. If a snapshot is deleted, its associated data is deleted 100 days after its creation date.

To view your snapshot usage with Salesforce CLI, run:

sf org list limits -o <Dev Hub username or alias>

Look for these values in the output:

Name                  Remaining      Max       
───────────────────── ─────────      ───────── 
ActiveOrgSnapshots    38             40
DailyOrgSnapshots     35             40

Unsupported Features

These features aren’t copied to the snapshot because they risk exposing sensitive data or authentication secrets.

• Connected apps
• External credentials
• Named credentials