Deadlines that moved

A tour · Deadlines that moved

How firm is a release deadline?

Changing deadlines sit behind familiar release updates: ICU formats, original-value checks in Process Builder, and the OAuth password flow. Salesforce postponed some, stopped enforcing others, and sometimes changed the deadline without changing the title.

Lit: notes Jev, the classification model, reads as release updates.

• The archive’s first note on critical updates · Spring ’09Notes on Critical Updates

The announced dates

Most deadlines moved later

Of the 12 revised dates followed here, 11 moved later. The revisions include extra time for Communities and the eventual withdrawal of ICU enforcement. Each row follows one change through its successive notices.

Seasonal deadlines use approximate months.

Summer ’18 to Winter ’27 preview

Conflicting dates in a retirement notice

Salesforce moved the announced retirement of Salesforce for Outlook seven years beyond its first deadline. In the Winter ’27 preview, it gave an earlier date in the body than in the heading. The source does not resolve which one Salesforce intended.

Salesforce said it postponed an earlier date “to help you better prepare.”

• The first deadline · Spring ’20Salesforce for Outlook Is Being Retired in December 2020
• Title: November 2027; text: November 1, 2026 · Winter ’27Salesforce for Outlook Is Being Retired in November 2027

Summer ’19 to Spring ’25

The Process Builder fix kept coming back

The Process Builder fix returned in 18 releases. It corrected criteria evaluation when a field started as null and a process updated the record. Salesforce eventually dropped enforcement and recommended Flow; admins could adopt the new behaviour per process through its API version.

Title matching misses notes that move a date without saying so in the title.

• The fix arrives as a critical update · Summer ’19Evaluate Criteria Based on Original Record Values in Process Builder (Critical Update)
• Postponed again · Summer ’20Evaluate Criteria Based on Original Record Values in Process Builder (Update, Postponed)
• Salesforce stops enforcing it · Spring ’25Evaluate Criteria Based on Original Record Values in Process Builder (Release Update)

Winter ’20 to Winter ’26

The ICU deadline disappeared

Salesforce assigned five enforcement dates to the switch to ICU locale formats, then stopped enforcing it. Orgs already using ICU kept those formats. Salesforce asked those still using JDK formats to enable the update themselves, leaving the format change available without a new deadline.

• Salesforce drops enforcement · Winter ’26Enable ICU Locale Formats (Release Update)

Spring ’16 to Summer ’17

Communities got more time

Salesforce extended the TLS 1.0 deadline for Lightning and Visualforce communities to March 2018. Partner and customer portals, plus Force.com and Site.com sites, still faced July 22, 2017. Community admins could also switch off TLS 1.0 ahead of the extended deadline.

• Communities get until March 2018 · Summer ’17Extended Deadline for TLS 1.0 Disablement in Communities

Summer ’22 to Winter ’27 preview

A release deadline became a calendar date

Salesforce moved enforcement for the OAuth username-password flow from Winter ’27 to February 20, 2027. New orgs had already defaulted the flow off, with an override. From Summer ’26, new orgs lost that override too, while existing integrations faced the later deadline.

• Announced enforcement: February 20, 2027 · Winter ’27Retirement of OAuth 2.0 Username-Password Flow for Connected Apps (Release Update)

Across these notices

The terms changed too

Across these notices, Salesforce changed the timing, the affected users, and whether it would enforce a change at all. An earlier notice can describe a plan that Salesforce later revised.

Lit: Salesforce for Outlook and the OAuth password flow, dated after Winter ’27.