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I Have only one license of Partial sandbox. I want to refresh it with Production. Before that I want to copy all the metadata present in the Partial sandbox into New/Existing Developer sandbox. How can do that? Is it supported by salesforce? or are there any tools available for this requirement. Thanks.

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I have never tried it but as mentioned in documentation, you can only clone sandboxes of similar license types.

As a best practice, I would recommend you store all the metadata and customization logic to a Version control system and treat it as source of truth.

A cloned sandbox uses the same license type as its source org. For example, to clone a Full sandbox you must have a Full sandbox license available.

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There are a few options and some pros/ cons. This is not an exhaustive list so ask away to discuss more.

Disclaimer: I work for Snapshot, one of the tools that I discuss below.

Here goes:

  1. Unmanaged packages: Just go to create package through Setup. Setup > Build > Create > Packages in Classic, Setup > Platforms Tools > Apps > Packaging > Package Manager in Lightning. This will help you add pretty much anything to this Private Package to be uploaded and then installed in the other Org. Pro: Easy to do and can be done across Org boundaries. Con: Metadata can only be installed once, you cannot update this package and install again in the same destination Org. So, if you want to do this just once, this is very easy and useful. If you want to do this over and over, choose something else. Great for admins and free option from Salesforce.
  2. Change Sets: Much like the previous unmanaged packages with similar options. This will work only between related Orgs (production Org and their related sandboxes). This removes the update restriction that I talked about in the previous option. Great for admins and free feature from Salesforce.
  3. ANT or Workbench: You can create a package.xml (manifest of metadata that you want to download/ upload) and use that to retrieve the metadata from one Org and deploy that into another Org. No Org boundaries using this method. Uses the metadata API directly so it actually can let you move more metadata options than Change Sets or Packages. There are tools like Package Builder (https://packagebuilder.herokuapp.com/) that can help with building your manifest. You do not need to be a developer but you need to be comfortable with manipulating XML. Free toolkits from Salesforce!
  4. DevOps tools: There are various paid tools, like Gearset (the one that @cropredy talked about), Autorabit, Flosum, Copado etc. that can help you do this on a regular basis. They make life easy if you want to do this regularly but if you are looking for a one-off, not a good idea. Mostly meant for developers and career release managers. Paid with free trials from ISVs listed on AppExchange!
  5. Org management tools: I work for Metazoa, the maker of Snapshot. This is a visual tool to backup/ retrieve, deploy and manage metadata. This is intended for admins and release managers who want to do this regularly. Paid with free trial from Metazoa!

Here is how I would approach this need: If you need to do this regularly, you will want to invest in a paid tool to do this. A lot of pros relate to managing customizations related to managed package customizations that are usually difficult to manage, secure using the free tools - not impossible, just difficult. If this is a one-off and this is a related sandbox (you did say developer sandbox but it could be related or not), just use Change sets. If it is a one-off and unrelated sandbox (Org merge/ split scenario), use unmanaged packages.

Glad to discuss more if you need it. Good luck.

Sridhar

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I would recommend using a vendor DevOps tool such as Gearset. You can copy metadata from any org to any org, regardless of sandbox type (and even copy data)

These vendor tools have visual user interfaces (no command line) and easy for admins and developers to quickly grasp. Source control is supported as a source and target as well.

Disclaimer: I'm not an employee of Gearset but we do use it in our org

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This is a great reason to use a tool such as Copado. It can take the metadata (and actual data) and migrate it between sandboxes or scratch orgs. It solves the problem of promoting changes from Developer to Integration testing and then to production and much more.

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