Unfollow
Unfollow is the action a Salesforce user takes to stop receiving Chatter feed updates from a record, person, group, or topic they previously followed.
Definition
Unfollow is the action a Salesforce user takes to stop receiving Chatter feed updates from a record, person, group, or topic they previously followed. The act removes the EntitySubscription row that linked the user to the followed entity, which means new posts, comments, and field-tracked changes on that entity no longer appear in the user's Chatter feed or notification stream.
Unfollow is the symmetric inverse of Follow. Salesforce stores both states in the same EntitySubscription object: when a user follows, a row is inserted; when they unfollow, that row is deleted. Field-level field tracking, post visibility, and notification routing all key off the existence of that row, so removing it has immediate effects across the bell, the digest email, the mobile push channel, and the Chatter feed itself.
What happens behind the scenes when a user unfollows a record
The EntitySubscription record
A follow relationship in Chatter is one row in the EntitySubscription object. The row links a Subscriber (a User) to a Parent (the record, person, group, or topic being followed). When the user clicks Unfollow, Salesforce deletes that row. The deletion is immediate; the feed stops updating on the next page refresh. The EntitySubscription object is queryable in SOQL and editable via DML, which is how admins or apex jobs can bulk-unfollow stale objects or migrate followers between two records.
What stops happening after an unfollow
Once a user unfollows, the Chatter feed no longer shows new posts on that entity, new comments on those posts, new field tracking events (an Account stage change, an Opportunity amount change), or any @mention digest items the user would otherwise have received as a follower. Direct @mentions still notify the user because @mentions bypass follow status. The user can still navigate to the entity and read its feed; unfollow only stops the push of new activity into their personal feed.
Follow limits and why people unfollow at scale
A single Salesforce user can follow a maximum of 500 entities. Long-tenured users hit this limit and start getting silent-fail errors when they try to follow new records. The standard remedy is a quarterly clean-out where the user unfollows closed opportunities, archived projects, and inactive groups to make room. Some orgs automate this through a scheduled Apex job that deletes EntitySubscription rows for records that have not been updated in 12 months.
Auto-follow and how unfollow undoes it
Salesforce has auto-follow rules that subscribe the record owner (and optionally the creator) automatically when a record is created. Workflows can also subscribe specific users. Unfollow overrides these rules; once the user clicks Unfollow, the auto-follow rule does not re-subscribe them on the next record save. The user keeps the unfollowed state until they explicitly follow again. This is important for senior users who get auto-subscribed to thousands of records they never read; one unfollow per record is permanent.
Unfollowing groups vs records
Unfollowing a Chatter group has slightly different semantics than unfollowing a record. Leaving a private group removes the user's membership entirely; the user loses access to posts written there. Unfollowing a public group keeps membership but stops pushing the group's posts to the user's main feed. Unfollowing a record just stops the feed push; the user retains all underlying record access. Admins should know the difference because users sometimes conflate "leave group" with "unfollow" and end up losing access they wanted to keep.
Bulk unfollow through API and apex
For org-level migrations (deactivating a user, retiring a region, archiving a project space), an admin or developer can bulk-delete EntitySubscription rows via Data Loader or Apex. The query is straightforward (SELECT Id FROM EntitySubscription WHERE Parent.Id IN :recordIds) and the DML delete fires the same audit log entries as an in-app unfollow. Bulk operations bypass the 500-follow per-user limit because the limit only blocks new follows, not deletions.
Unfollow and reporting analytics
Chatter Engagement reports count follow and unfollow events as separate measures. A spike in unfollows on a group or topic often signals content quality or volume problems; admins can pull a 30-day unfollow trend by group and identify the noisy publisher. The same telemetry is used in Salesforce Customer Success Score dashboards for Experience Cloud sites, where a high unfollow rate on a topic indicates the community is producing more noise than value.
Unfollow a record or person from the feed
Stop receiving Chatter updates from a record, person, group, or topic by toggling the Follow button on its detail page.
- Open the entity you follow
Navigate to the record, user profile, group, or topic detail page. The current follow status shows next to the entity name.
- Click the Following button
The button reads Following when you currently follow the entity. Click it. A confirmation tooltip appears and the button label changes to Follow.
- Confirm in the feed
Open your personal Chatter feed (Home tab, Chatter). New posts from the unfollowed entity should no longer appear. Existing posts already in your feed history stay visible.
- Verify auto-follow does not re-subscribe
If the entity is one your role auto-follows (record owner, queue subscriber), your unfollow overrides the rule. No new subscription is recreated on the next save.
- Bulk clean stale follows
For a quarterly cleanup, open the Chatter Following list under your profile and click Unfollow next to each closed opportunity, archived project, or inactive group you no longer need.
Toggle on the detail page. Affects only that record, person, group, or topic.
Profile, Following tab. Click Unfollow next to each entry. Fast way to clean a long follow list.
Delete EntitySubscription rows for the target Subscriber or Parent IDs. Used for admin-driven migrations and deactivation cleanups.
Separate from follow. You can stay following an entity but turn off the email or push delivery from Setup, Personal Settings, Email Settings.
- Unfollowing a private Chatter group is not the same as leaving it. To fully detach, click Leave Group; otherwise you remain a member with no feed updates.
- Direct @mentions notify the user even after an unfollow. If a user does not want any notifications from a record, the @mention senders must be informed; unfollow alone does not block them.
- Auto-follow workflows do not re-subscribe an unfollowed user, but a manual click Follow by the user resets the override. Train senior users to leave the entity unfollowed if they want to stay quiet.
- Bulk unfollow via Data Loader requires admin access to EntitySubscription and does not respect the 500-follow user limit. Use it carefully on shared user accounts.
Trust & references
Cross-checked against the following references.
- Follow and Unfollow in ChatterSalesforce Help
- EntitySubscription Object ReferenceSalesforce Developer Docs
- Chatter OverviewSalesforce Help
Straight from the source - Salesforce's reference material on Unfollow.
- Follow and UnfollowSalesforce Help
- EntitySubscription ReferenceSalesforce Developer Docs
- Chatter Email Notification SettingsSalesforce Help
Hands-on resources to go deeper on Unfollow.
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.
Test your knowledge
Q1. What does Unfollow do?
Q2. Why unfollow?
Q3. What does it reverse?
Discussion
Loading discussion…