Lightning Sync
Lightning Sync was Salesforce's bi-directional sync engine between Salesforce and Microsoft Exchange or Google Workspace for contacts and events.
Definition
Lightning Sync was Salesforce's bi-directional sync engine between Salesforce and Microsoft Exchange or Google Workspace for contacts and events. It was retired in February 2024, replaced by Einstein Activity Capture as the recommended sync product. Lightning Sync ran server-to-server (no user-installed plugin required) and could push changes both ways: a contact created in Outlook would appear in Salesforce, an event updated in Salesforce would update on the user's calendar.
The retirement matters because thousands of orgs still have Lightning Sync configurations sitting in Setup with no replacement wired up. The sync stopped running on retirement day, but the configuration screens remained visible for months after. Anyone troubleshooting "why are my calendar events not syncing anymore?" on an org built before 2024 is almost certainly looking at orphan Lightning Sync config. Einstein Activity Capture is the official migration path, but it is unidirectional (email and event ingestion into Salesforce only) and behaves differently enough that "migrate" usually means "rebuild."
What Lightning Sync did, why Salesforce retired it, and what replaced it
Bi-directional contact and event sync
The defining feature was bi-directional sync. A user could update a contact in Outlook and watch the change propagate to Salesforce, or update an event in Salesforce and see it appear on the Exchange calendar. The sync ran via OAuth-authorized service account credentials against Exchange or Gmail. There was no per-user plugin to install, which made deployment dramatically easier than the older Salesforce for Outlook desktop add-in. Bi-directional sync is the single capability Einstein Activity Capture does not replicate.
Server-side architecture and the service account
Lightning Sync ran on Salesforce servers, calling Exchange Web Services or Google APIs on behalf of users via an OAuth-authorized service mailbox. The service account needed Application Impersonation rights on Exchange or domain-wide delegation on Google Workspace. This was the single largest deployment friction; IT teams had to grant the impersonation right, which some security teams blocked outright. Users themselves did nothing other than have their mailbox provisioned correctly.
Why Salesforce retired it
Lightning Sync was retired because Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) ate its lunch in two ways. EAC handled email logging (Lightning Sync did not), and EAC's machine-learning enrichment of activity data became core to Sales Cloud's Einstein features. Maintaining two parallel sync products was a tax Salesforce stopped paying. The retirement was announced in late 2022 with a February 2024 sunset, giving customers about 15 months to migrate. Many customers did not migrate in time and discovered the sunset by user tickets.
Migrating to Einstein Activity Capture
Einstein Activity Capture captures emails and events from connected mailboxes and surfaces them on Salesforce records. It does not push changes outward (no contact updates from Salesforce to Outlook, no events written from Salesforce to Exchange). The unidirectional flow is a big behavior change. Activities show up in Salesforce as related-list rows tied to Contacts and Opportunities by email-address matching, but they live in a parallel data store called Activity 360 rather than the standard Task and Event objects unless Sync to Salesforce is enabled per user.
The data structure difference
Lightning Sync wrote standard Salesforce records: a synced contact became a Contact record, a synced event became an Event record. Reports, list views, and automation worked on those records normally. Einstein Activity Capture writes to a separate object model (UserEmailCapture, UserCalendarCapture) by default, with optional sync to standard Tasks and Events. Reports built on the standard Event object lose data after the migration if you do not enable Sync to Salesforce. Many orgs miss this and report "activities disappeared after migration."
Salesforce for Outlook and the older sync products
Lightning Sync replaced Salesforce for Outlook (SFO), a desktop plugin that required installation per machine. SFO was retired in June 2021. The lineage is SFO (desktop plugin, retired 2021), Lightning Sync (server-side bi-directional, retired 2024), Einstein Activity Capture (server-side AI-enriched, current). Each product retired the one before it. An org that has been on Salesforce for ten years has likely migrated through at least two of these.
Cleanup steps after retirement
After February 2024, Lightning Sync configurations stopped running but remained visible in Setup. The cleanup steps: remove the Lightning Sync configurations under Setup, Email, Lightning Sync; revoke the service account OAuth grants on Exchange or Google; remove the Application Impersonation rights from the service mailbox; audit users whose calendar events stopped syncing; turn on Einstein Activity Capture per user if the org plans to continue activity sync. Each step is independent; partial cleanup leaves orphaned config that confuses future admins.
Auditing and removing Lightning Sync configuration after retirement
Lightning Sync stopped working in February 2024. The remaining work for any org is auditing what was set up, removing orphan configuration, and either migrating to Einstein Activity Capture or accepting that activity sync no longer happens.
- Inventory existing Lightning Sync configurations
Setup, Quick Find, Lightning Sync, Lightning Sync Configurations. The list shows every config, the users assigned, and the sync direction. Export the list before removing anything; you might need to recreate the user assignments in EAC.
- Decide migration target per user group
Einstein Activity Capture for most users. For users who genuinely need bi-directional contact sync, no Salesforce product currently replaces it; consider Cirrus Insight, Groove, or another third-party AppExchange package.
- Enable Einstein Activity Capture
Setup, Quick Find, Einstein Activity Capture. Enable the feature, configure the connected accounts (Microsoft or Google), and assign users to the new configuration. Activate Sync to Salesforce if you need Tasks and Events on the standard objects.
- Remove the Lightning Sync configurations
Once users are on EAC and activities are showing up, delete each Lightning Sync configuration. Revoke the OAuth grant on Exchange or Google Workspace. Remove Application Impersonation rights from the service account mailbox.
- Audit the activity backfill
Einstein Activity Capture only captures going forward; it does not retroactively sync historical Outlook activity. If reporting requires historical activity, export the existing Task and Event records and document that anything before EAC enable date came from Lightning Sync.
Lightning Sync supported Both Ways, Salesforce to Exchange/Google, and Exchange/Google to Salesforce. EAC supports only ingestion into Salesforce; no outbound sync.
Contacts only, events only, or both. EAC handles emails and events; for contact sync no native replacement exists.
Lightning Sync wrote to standard Task and Event objects. EAC writes to its own Activity 360 store with optional Sync to Salesforce per user.
Lightning Sync used a single service mailbox with Application Impersonation. EAC uses per-user OAuth or admin-consented connections; per-user is more secure but slower to provision.
- Lightning Sync stopped running in February 2024. Any org still showing it in Setup is looking at orphan configuration, not a working sync.
- Einstein Activity Capture is not a drop-in replacement. It is one-way (no Salesforce-to-mailbox sync) and lands data in a separate Activity 360 store by default.
- Standard Event and Task reports that included Lightning Sync events lose data after the migration unless Sync to Salesforce is enabled.
- Bi-directional contact sync has no Salesforce-native replacement. Third-party AppExchange products are the only path.
- Service account permissions remain granted on Exchange or Google after Lightning Sync retirement. Revoke them as part of cleanup or they linger forever.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Lightning Sync Retirement NoticeSalesforce Help
- Lightning Sync Overview (Archived)Salesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Lightning Sync.
- Einstein Activity Capture OverviewSalesforce Help
- Migrate from Lightning Sync to Einstein Activity CaptureSalesforce Help
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He runs salesforcedictionary.com to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
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