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Delete Custom Objects

When you delete a custom object, Salesforce doesn’t add it to the Recycle Bin. Instead, deleted objects appear in the Deleted Objects list for 15 days. During this time, the object and its data are soft deleted, meaning you can restore or permanently erase (hard delete) the object and its data. After 15 days, the object and its data are automatically hard deleted.

Required Editions

Important
Important Where possible, we changed noninclusive terms to align with our company value of Equality. We maintained certain terms to avoid any effect on customer implementations.
Available in: Salesforce Classic
Available in: Contact Manager, Group, Professional, Enterprise, Performance, Unlimited, Developer, and Database.com Editions
User Permissions Needed
To delete custom objects:

Customize Application

AND

View All Data

Soft-deleted custom objects and their data count against your org’s limits but hard-deleted items don’t.

To delete a custom object:

  1. From the object management settings for custom objects, click Del next to the object that you want to delete.
  2. When prompted, select Yes, I want to delete the custom object to confirm, and click Delete.

You can’t delete a custom object if it:

  • Is on the master side of a master-detail relationship
  • Contains custom fields that are used in a roll-up summary field on another object
  • Is referenced in Apex, a Visualforce page, or a reporting snapshot
  • Is referenced by a duplicate rule or a matching rule
  • Contains more than 100,000 records. If the object that you want to delete has more than 100,000 records, delete an appropriate number of records first, and then delete the object.

When you delete a custom object, Salesforce:

  • Displays an Insufficient Privileges message if someone clicks a bookmark to a deleted custom object record’s URL
  • Removes the object from AppExchange packages
  • Changes the master-detail relationship to a lookup relationship if the deleted object is on the detail side of a master-detail relationship
  • Removes or erases:
    • The object’s custom tab
    • List views and workflow rules for the object
    • Mobile configuration settings including datasets, mobile views, and excluded fields
    • Standard report types associated with the object, and reports based on standard report types if the deleted object is on the detail side of a master-detail relationship
  • Hides, inactivates, or disables:
    • The custom object definition and related definitions
    • The object’s records and related records, including any records in the Recycle Bin
    • Custom report types where the deleted object is the main object
    • Custom reports where the deleted object is the main object
    • Custom formula fields on the object
    • Custom validation rules and approval processes on the object

To restore removed, hidden, inactive, or disabled items, you can undelete the custom object. See Manage Deleted Custom Objects for information about restoring deleted custom objects.

See Also