Provisioning a Developer Sandbox is the simplest sandbox creation flow. Choose the name, optionally set a post-copy script, and Salesforce builds the environment in under an hour.
- Open Sandboxes in production Setup
Setup, then Sandboxes. The page lists existing sandboxes and shows your available license counts.
- Click New Sandbox and pick Developer
Click New Sandbox. Pick Developer from the type dropdown. The form expands with naming options.
- Name the sandbox
Sandbox name: 10 characters or fewer, lowercase, no spaces. devsbx1, devjane, qaint are typical names. The name becomes part of the URL and the username suffix; pick something meaningful.
- Optional: set a post-copy Apex class
In the Post Copy Script field, name an Apex class that implements SandboxPostCopy. The class runs automatically after creation and refresh. Use it to seed test data, configure connected apps, or set up users.
- Confirm and create
Click Create. Salesforce begins the metadata copy. Expect 30 minutes to a few hours; you receive an email when complete.
- Log in
Use the URL https://test.salesforce.com or your domain''s sandbox subdomain. Username is your-prod-username.sandboxname. Password is your production password as of creation time.
Metadata only, daily refresh. The most common starting point.
Larger sibling. Use when 200 MB is not enough but you do not need production data.
Bigger jump for tests that need realistic record shapes.
Production-equal data, 29-day refresh. Used for pre-production and training.
- 200 MB fills up faster than you expect once you start loading test data. Bulk inserts of 50,000 EmailMessages can fill the allocation by themselves.
- Sandbox name is permanent. You cannot rename a sandbox; deleting and recreating is the workaround.
- Apex Schedulable jobs do not survive a refresh. Re-schedule them after every refresh, manually or via a post-copy Apex class.
- Sandboxes share Salesforce''s storage limits with production. Heavy attachment uploads in a sandbox can affect what is available across the broader environment in unusual edge cases.