In today's blog post, we want to take a look at how an admin can help their business users by cleaning up the clutter in the Files related list on Case records in Salesforce.
The Problem: Your users (typically service or customer support agents) open a case record and can't find the file they are looking for. Not only is this frustrating and a waste of time, but it also consumes unnecessary file storage. While each file is not that large in size, the high number of files can easily stack up and consume a lot of Salesforce File Storage.
Now, as a solution, you want to clean up this list of attachments.
But easier said than done. Let's look at the options.
Allowing the end user to manually delete them? => Nope, not an option. Since the agent working on the case is not the owner of the file (this is usually some admin user, who is set as the "default owner" in the system settings), they cannot delete the file or remove it from the record. Unless you give them "Modify All Data," which is by no means an acceptable solution in a real-world scenario. That is basically like giving god mode to your "ordinary" users.
Salesforce out-of-the-box options? => One setting is available that gives you partial relief: "Eliminate duplicate email attachments." What this does is remove some of the duplicate entries in the Files list. The results vary from client to client, so it's recommended to give this setting a try to see how far it takes you. For some, the result is good enough. For others, the problem still persists.
Caveats:
- This is not really reducing the storage consumed, as it primarily removes pointers but does not delete the records in the background.
- It doesn't remove unnecessary and unwanted pictures that clutter your files list.
- In order to have this setting available, you first need to activate "Save Email-to-Case attachments as Salesforce files" in the "Email-to-Case" settings in Setup. Only after activating and saving, you will see the new option.
🤷 now what?
With these options explored, we have exhausted what is available out of the box. From here on, you would either have to build a custom solution or buy an add-on from the AppExchange.
That's where we recommend Image Sorter for Salesforce: It's a plugin from the AppExchange that you add to the Case Record Page. Once the component is on the layout, it will automatically clean up your Files list. It does this by keeping a blocklist of files in the background. The blocklist is easily maintained by the user, who is in full control of what to keep and what to delete. The process of cleaning up is fast and actually quite fun, because the result is immediately visible - and finally seeing through the clutter sparks joy.
Summary
To easily do a Salesforce Case File cleanup, you install Image Sorter from the AppExchange.