Mobile Configuration
A Mobile Configuration is a retired Salesforce Setup record that decided which objects and records synced onto a phone running Salesforce Classic Mobile.
Definition
A Mobile Configuration is a retired Salesforce Setup record that decided which objects and records synced onto a phone running Salesforce Classic Mobile. Each held a data set of object filters and record limits, assigned to users and profiles.
Salesforce pulled Classic Mobile from the app stores on December 1, 2017. The Setup node went with it, and its help page now returns a 404.
The Salesforce Mobile App caches automatically. Briefcase Builder handles what admins once picked by hand.
In plain English
“Phones used to hold very little, so someone at the company decided in advance what got copied onto each person's phone. That list of choices was a Mobile Configuration. The app it fed was switched off in 2017. Phones handle it themselves now.”
Worked example
Picture an admin at a building-supplies distributor in 2016. She creates a Mobile Configuration called Field Sales BB and assigns it to the Outside Sales profile. Then she builds a data set on Account filtered to Owner equals the mobile user, with Contact and Opportunity pulled in beneath it. Reps in a dead-zone warehouse see exactly those records. None of that exists today. The same requirement gets rebuilt in Briefcase Builder: same objects, same owner filter.
From admin-picked data sets to Briefcase Builder
What a Mobile Configuration actually did
A configuration was a container. Inside it you built a data set naming objects, filter criteria, and record limits, deciding what landed on the device. You also chose mobilized tabs and the fields that showed, then assigned the whole thing to users and profiles. Orgs often ran several at once, lean for reps, wider for managers.
Why Salesforce killed it
The model asked admins to predict every record a person might need offline. Guess narrow and reps could not find their accounts. Guess wide and sync crawled. Salesforce pulled both apps and logged remaining users out for good.
The successor the retirement notice does not name
That 2017 notice told customers who needed guaranteed offline records to build on the Mobile SDK. Fair then, stale now. Briefcase Builder does the same job declaratively from Setup: pick objects, add filters and related object rules, then assign to users or profiles. Priming is capped per object and per user, not per briefcase: 50,000 either way, and object rules start at 500. It works with Field Service mobile, Salesforce Mobile App Plus, and custom apps on the Briefcase sync down target.
What the standard mobile app does instead
Without briefcases, the Salesforce Mobile App manages offline data itself. It keeps what someone viewed during the session plus their most recently accessed items, tasks and dashboards included. Salesforce publishes no guaranteed record count for that cache, so treat the numbers in old blog posts as folklore. Tuning mobile today means Lightning App Builder pages and compact layouts.
How organizations use Mobile Configuration
One configuration per profile, data sets scoped to each rep's own accounts, because anything wider never finished downloading.
Rebuilds each data set as a briefcase object rule, and finds the 500-record default starving big territories.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Salesforce Classic Mobile App Retirement (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- When to Use Briefcase Builder (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Briefcase Builder Limits and Considerations (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- Mobile Apps Compatible with Briefcases (opens in new tab)Salesforce
- What's Available Offline in the Salesforce Mobile App (opens in new tab)Salesforce
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Mobile Configuration.
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Mobile Configuration.
About the Author
Dipojjal Chakrabarti is a B2C Solution Architect with 29 Salesforce certifications and over 13 years in the Salesforce ecosystem. He writes and edits salesforcedictionary.com, published by KineticBit Inc., to help admins, developers, architects, and cert/interview candidates sharpen their fundamentals. More about Dipojjal.
Test your knowledge
+5 pts / dayQ1. What did a Mobile Configuration control in Salesforce Classic Mobile?
Q2. Salesforce Classic Mobile was removed from Google Play and the App Store on which date?
Q3. A field crew needs a guaranteed set of work orders available with no signal. Which tool does that job today?
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