Salesforce Files Vs. Attachments

Nikita R.

Media-savvy content creator, with a curiosity for all Salesforce experiences.

Updated: Jan 13th, 2025

Organizing data on your customer relationship management (CRM) platform is essential for finding information quickly. Due to this common business requirement, Salesforce has two features for working with your documents:

Files

Attachments

However, these two features have different ways of functioning in Salesforce. Join us below to explore Salesforce Files vs. Attachments and how they are used in different scenarios.

Understanding Salesforce Files

Starting with Salesforce Files, you might know this feature by its other name – Enhanced Notes. Regarding Files vs. Attachments in Salesforce, Files is the more advanced feature for document management tasks. With the Files feature, you can store business material in the ContentVersion object so that your data is not linked to any record. This is a cool feature, as it lets you connect documents to many Salesforce records. 

Salesforce Attachment Object

You may also save files to an Attachment object in Salesforce. It’s a standard one and helps relate files to other records in your database. These records can belong to custom or standard objects. Teams often add their images and documents to Salesforce records with the Attachment object.

The Difference Between Files and Attachments in Salesforce

Below, we have sourced a few variances that you can find between Salesforce Files and Attachments.

Multi-Record Sharing

The main contrast between Salesforce Attachments and Files is how they function. The Files feature lets you link documents to many records, while the Attachments feature joins documents to specific records. However, there are other distinctions for Files vs. Attachments in Salesforce.

For example, when using the Attachments feature, files have a one-to-one relationship with Salesforce records. This is important to note because if you delete a record, you must be aware that your attached file will also be removed from Salesforce.

Attachments vs. Files in Salesforce: Storage Capacity

Another Salesforce Attachments vs. Files point to consider is document limitations! When you use Attachments, your file size cannot exceed 25 MB and must be in a standard format like PDF or Word. Salesforce Files differs here, as you can upload individual files up to a size limit of 2 GB .

Sharing Capabilities

Salesforce Files is an astute feature, so employees can comment and add colleagues to the conversation with @mentions. It is also used to easily share files with individuals or bigger teams. You may also transfer files with Salesforce Attachments. Remember that for both features, you need to configure permissions on files so that colleagues can view or work with them.

Collaboration via Chatter Feed

If your business has a Chatter feed set up for Salesforce, you will be glad to hear that it supports the Salesforce Attachments and Files features. With Salesforce Attachments, files can be shared in a Chatter feed as links for members to click. Employees can either view the document or download it to their local PC.

Salesforce Files makes file sharing in Salesforce even better on a Chatter feed. Files can be embedded in the feed for members to view directly without downloading them. An added benefit of a Salesforce Files and Chatter integration is that employees can comment on files in the feed for faster business decisions.

Document Versioning

Unfortunately, since the Attachments feature is an older Salesforce feature, it does not support the versioning of documents. This means that the original version will be overwritten when you edit a document. However, you will always have the latest version of your file.

If your business needs document versioning, then use Salesforce Files instead. It will retain all the previous instances of files so you can use any of the ones you worked on.

Some Similarities between Salesforce Files and Attachments

Now that we are sorted with the differences between these reliable Salesforce features, let’s look at the similarities they offer for file management.

Preview Functionality

Previewing files in Salesforce can be achieved with the Files and Attachment features. This handy function lets you view files without downloading them. Making sure to preview files before downloading is a good way to save time on accidentally selecting the wrong document.

Lightning Experience Integration

The Attachments and Files features both work in Salesforce Lightning Experience. As Salesforce Files is the newer tech and can manage documents better with advanced collaboration tools, it is the favored tool for trailblazers. Sadly, Salesforce Attachments is unable to scale well on huge projects with lots of content to organize.

Files vs Notes and Attachments in Salesforce

Notes is another feature from Salesforce to add to the mix. You can use it specifically for creating and saving notes. Notes and Attachments in Salesforce are similar as they relate to specific records in your CRM platform.

Salesforce notes and attachments keep your files well organized and easy to find. Here are a few features from Salesforce Notes worth mentioning:

With Salesforce Notes, employees can format their content by adding custom bold or italic styles to text.

Text within files can also be underlined or structured with bullet points and numbering to be read faster.

You can share Salesforce notes with colleagues who have access to view them. Like with Salesforce Files, you can mention teammates in notes to communicate faster on projects.

If we look at the functionality of Salesforce Notes and Attachments vs. Files in Salesforce, we can see that Files is the feature you want for advanced document sharing and organization.

Titan: Flexible Tool for Salesforce Files and Attachments

If you want to experience a code-free way of working faster, try Titan Files as an alternative to managing your Salesforce File Operations. Our app gives you automation tools to work swiftly with files in Salesforce. 

Titan Files and Salesforce Flows empower you to streamline processes and enhance user flexibility for your teams. Anyone can create, modify, and organize files from within Salesforce or use external file storage without writing a single line of code!

We hope to see you soon!

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Disclaimer: The comparisons listed in this article are based on information provided by the companies online and online reviews from users. If you found a mistake, please contact us.