The Salesforce Recycle Bin
forgets your merges.
Three weeks after a bad dedupe pass, the user who flagged it is on PTO. Two months later, the overwritten field values are gone for good — and the Recycle Bin can't give them back. Here's why merges need their own snapshots.
The problem
How the Salesforce Recycle Bin
actually works.
Deleted records sit in the Recycle Bin for about 15 days, after which they become eligible for permanent purge.
The bin's capacity is tied to your org's storage. When it's exceeded, Salesforce starts purging the oldest records even before the 15-day window is up — there's no guarantee of the full two weeks.
Here's the structural catch for merges: when two records merge, the losing record goes to the Recycle Bin — but the field values overwritten on the surviving master aren't in the bin at all. Restoring the loser doesn't bring back what was on the master before the merge.
So restoring a months-old merge from the bin is, structurally, impossible. The losers are long purged, and the master's overwritten values were never stored there in the first place.
The implication
Undoing a merge needs a snapshot
written before the change.
Reversing a merge means answering two questions: what did the losing record look like before it was deleted? and what did the master record's fields hold before they were overwritten? The Recycle Bin can answer the first only within its retention window; it never answers the second.
A field-level snapshot, captured before the merge commits, answers both. That's the only honest "undo a Salesforce merge" mechanism — and it's exactly what SmartDedupe's Merge Restore does.
The answer
How SmartDedupe
Merge Restore works.
Snapshots before every change
A field-level snapshot bundle is written before batch merges, real-time merges, and CSV imports — not just for big batch runs.
Independent of the Recycle Bin
Restore recreates purged records and reverts the master's overwritten field values from SmartDedupe's own snapshots — long after Salesforce would have purged the originals.
Whole-run restore
An entire batch run can be restored in one operation — not one record at a time.
And: there's no restore add-on fee. Merge Restore is included at every tier that has retention.
What we don't do
Standard tier has 0-day retention — Merge Restore starts at Premium. If you're on Standard, Merge Restore isn't part of your plan. We'd rather say that plainly than hand-wave an “undo anything” claim that isn't true at every tier.
Honest scope
How the others
handle merge undo.
DataGroomr's Undo works within the Recycle Bin window (~15 days) and cannot restore overwritten master fields. Its Rollback capability is a $1,500/year add-on.
Plauti's Restore Rollback is free, but its own documentation states it “cannot extend record retention of the Salesforce Recycle Bin.”
Cloudingo restores from its own history, up to a 45-day managed ceiling, with no bulk restore.
DemandTools keeps its restore files on the local workstation.
Retention by tier
How far back
can you reach?
| Tier | Merge Restore retention | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Trial | 7 days (full Custom-tier access) | Every feature unlocked during trial. |
| Standard | 0 days | Merge Restore not included — detection and prevention tier. |
| Premium | 30 days | Lowest tier that ships Merge Restore. |
| Enterprise | 90 days | Deeper than Cloudingo's 45-day ceiling and DataGroomr's ~15-day window; Plauti is Recycle-Bin-bound and DemandTools depends on local restore files. |
| Custom | 365 days | Longest retention SmartDedupe offers — further back than any competitor we've surveyed. |
Price
Cloudingo's undo entry point is $6,000/yr. DataGroomr Professional + Undo ≈ $4,895/yr. SmartDedupe Premium is $1,999 with Merge Restore included.
Frequently asked
Merge Restore, plainly.
Can the Salesforce Recycle Bin undo a merge?
Only within the Recycle Bin's ~15-day window, and only the losing record itself — not the field values overwritten on the surviving master.
What happens if the Recycle Bin fills up?
When the bin exceeds its capacity (tied to org storage), Salesforce purges the oldest records even before the 15-day window expires.
Does SmartDedupe write its own snapshot before a merge?
Yes — a field-level snapshot bundle is captured before batch merges, real-time merges, and CSV imports.
Can I roll back an entire batch run at once?
Yes. Whole-run bulk restore reverses an entire batch run in one operation, not one record at a time.
Is Merge Restore a paid add-on?
No. Merge Restore is included at every tier that has retention — there is no restore add-on fee.
Merge with
a way back.
SmartDedupe is launching soon on the Salesforce AppExchange — get notified.