Personal Settings
Personal Settings in Salesforce Classic is the user-facing configuration area where individual users manage their own preferences without needing administrator access.
Definition
Personal Settings in Salesforce Classic is the user-facing configuration area where individual users manage their own preferences without needing administrator access. Accessed via the user's name menu in Salesforce Classic, it provides options for updating personal information (name, email, address), changing language, locale, and time zone settings, configuring email and calendar preferences, managing login history and security tokens, setting up email signatures, and adjusting display options. Personal Settings is the Classic equivalent of My Settings in Lightning Experience.
In plain English
“Personal Settings is the user-facing configuration area in Salesforce Classic where individual users manage their own preferences without needing admin access. It's the Classic equivalent of My Settings in Lightning Experience.”
Worked example
A teacher at Bramblewood Schools using the legacy Salesforce Classic interface clicks her name in the top-right and opens Personal Settings - the Classic equivalent of My Settings in Lightning. From there she updates her display time zone (her family moved across states), changes her email signature, and reviews her recent login history. Admin permissions aren't required for any of this; Personal Settings is exactly what its name suggests - the user's own preferences, scoped to the user. When Bramblewood eventually migrates the staff to Lightning Experience, the same options will live under My Settings; the Classic Personal Settings page goes away in that migration.
Why Personal Settings matters
Personal Settings in Salesforce Classic is the user-facing configuration area where individual users manage their own preferences without needing administrator access. Accessed via the user's name menu in Salesforce Classic, it provides options for updating personal information (name, email, address), changing language, locale, and time zone settings, configuring email and calendar preferences, managing login history and security tokens, setting up email signatures, and adjusting display options.
Personal Settings is the Classic equivalent of My Settings in Lightning Experience. Both serve the same purpose: empowering users to manage their own configuration without admin intervention. For orgs that have migrated to Lightning, users access these capabilities through My Settings instead. Encountering Personal Settings references typically signals a Classic org or older documentation. Mature orgs train users on whichever interface (Personal Settings or My Settings) matches their UI.
How organizations use Personal Settings
Helps clients still on Classic train users on Personal Settings while planning Lightning migration.
Trained users on My Settings during Lightning Experience rollout, replacing Classic Personal Settings training.
Treats Personal Settings as a Classic-era feature replaced by My Settings in Lightning.
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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