Salesforce Spring ‘26 Release: What to Expect and How to Prepare

2026 is just around the corner, and with the new year, we’ll be treated to the Salesforce Spring ‘26 Release. As a reminder, Salesforce provides updates and new features via a Winter, Spring, and Summer update each year. 

If you do not prepare, functionality could break, so start preparing for Spring ‘26 changes ahead of time. New behaviors will be enforced as the release rolls out in January 2026. 

Preparation

Release updates should be enabled in a sandbox first, so you can test any impacts on your systems or ways of working.

If you have a developer-type skillset, you can use SFDX tools to search your Salesforce metadata for references that could be impacted by this update, and use tools such as Salesforce Inspector Reloaded or Workbench to query records or permissions. 

Salesforce may sometimes delay the enforcement of a release update or cancel it altogether. Be sure to check the release notes for the latest information, as things can change or shift around!

Salesforce Spring ‘26 Release

When Spring ‘26 arrives, a number of release updates will be enforced. These updates are flagged by Salesforce as something that could change existing behavior, so start preparations early. 

This article provides general steps on how to prepare your org. These steps assume the features are being used as prescribed, with no customization. If your implementation of these features is customized, you may need to take additional actions to prepare. 

If you have installed managed packages, that configuration won’t be readable or editable. If you suspect these packages may be impacted by these updates, reach out to the provider to check. 

Whenever making changes in Salesforce, do so initially in a sandbox environment to avoid impacting users during testing. If testing is successful, deploy to other environments and eventually to your production instance. 

When making changes in production, do this outside of working hours and allow time to test afterwards. The idea is to give you time to roll back should any issues arise.

Calculate Tax-Only and Product-Only Price Adjustments

What Does This Impact? 

If you are using the Order Item Summary Object and adjustments, Salesforce is changing the way certain adjustments are calculated. This is part of Salesforce Order Management, which falls under Salesforce Commerce Cloud. 

No Code and Pro Code:

• Review integrations that use Salesforce APIs:
  • Search code for adjustmentType

How Can I Prepare in a Sandbox?

Salesforce has us covered here with some steps to work through the release update and ensure these changes do not impact other dependent processes. 

Within a sandbox, you can enable a test run of this update and then follow the steps below:

1. Test a cancellation with a fee.
2. Test a blind return with a fee.
3. Test a return order with a fee.
4. Review alert.

How Can I Prepare in Production? 

Once you have completed testing in your sandbox environments, you can enable the test run and complete the same steps in production.

Be sure to do this outside of working hours so you can roll back if any issues arise, without impacting users. 

Escape the Label Attribute of <apex:inputField> Elements to Prevent Cross-Site Scripting in Visualforce Pages

What Does This Impact? 

The initial version of this update was rolled out in an earlier release. If that’s the case, the update will appear under “Archived”, which means it is already enforced in your org.

If the update is applicable, you’ll see it under “Needs Action” in Release Updates. 

Visualforce pages are susceptible to malicious attacks via cross-site scripting. Salesforce is enhancing the security of Visualforce pages so <apex:inputField> is better protected. 

Once enabled, Salesforce escapes the Label attribute of <apex:inputField> in Visualforce pages. If the attributes are already escaped, they will become double-escaped and break! 

No Code:

• Search Visualforce pages for <apex:inputField>

Pro Code:

• Scan Visualforce metadata for <apex:inputField>

How Can I Prepare in a Sandbox?

Technically, this update will only break items that are already escaped, so you could get away with testing only those references. For a more robust approach, check all instances of <apex:inputField> in the context of your business processes to ensure they still work as expected.

Once you’ve got your references from the above section, enable the test run in a sandbox. Test each instance of this element and ensure it works as expected. If it doesn’t, make changes and retest until it functions correctly.

How Can I Prepare in Production? 

Deploy metadata changes to production outside of core business hours to avoid user disruption. Enable the test run and retest the impacted pages to ensure they still work as expected.

If things go wrong, roll back the metadata changes and disable the update before users come online. 

Update Instanced URLs in API Traffic

What Does This Impact? 

It’s considered best practice not to reference your instance in API calls, as this can change. For example, if your org is in GBR10 with salesforceben.my.salesforce.com, use salesforceben.my.salesforce.com and not GBR10 in your API calls. 

Salesforce has been redirecting traffic automatically, which will stop as of Spring ‘26 for production orgs. This change was enforced in sandboxes in Winter ‘26. 

No Code:

• Check integrations to make sure they use the My Domain URL.
• Search Apex metadata for any instance references.
• Search Visualforce metadata for any instance references.

Pro Code:

• Check integrations to make sure they use the My Domain URL.
• Scan Apex metadata for any instance references.
• Scan Visualforce metadata for any instance references.

How Can I Prepare in a Sandbox?

Review integrations and make sure they call your My Domain URL and not instance name. 

Check any Apex or Visualforce that may rely on calling Salesforce APIs, as this could also use the instance name instead of the My Domain.

Once you’ve made any necessary changes to your integrations, enable the test run of this update and retest any impacted functionality. 

How Can I Prepare in Production? 

Deploy changes to your live system when users are offline. Enable the test run and retest to make sure the impacted functionality still works as expected.

Have a rollback plan to revert metadata back and disable the test run in the same maintenance window if things were to go wrong.

Other Changes

You’d be right to think you’ve seen the Migrate to a Multiple-Configuration SAML Framework release update before! It was enforced for sandboxes in Summer ’24. For production instances, it was due to be enforced in Spring ’25, but this was postponed to Spring ’26. This was covered in Salesforce Summer ‘24 Release: What to Expect and How to Prepare.

Switch to a Single Domain Certificate for Your Salesforce Content Delivery Network was due to be enforced in Spring ‘26, but has since been postponed indefinitely. 

Restrict User Access to Run Flows has been around for a while, and the latest enforcement has been pushed back to Spring ‘26. This was covered in Salesforce Winter ‘25 Release: What to Expect and How to Prepare, when it was initially due to be enforced. 

Summary

As Benjamin Franklin once said, “By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. Make sure to heed this warning by preparing for these updates ahead of time to avoid any user impact when Salesforce enforces new behaviour.