How to retrieve custom fields with field level security using package.xml

Question

I would like to retrieve custom fields with field level security using package.xml. How to prepare package.xml for this?

Thanks, Anil Kumar

Answer 1

You have to specify the profiles to retrieve the security for, as well as the object/fields. For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
  <types><members>*</members><name>CustomField</name></types>
  <types><members>*</members><name>Profile</name></types>
  <version>44.0</version>
</Package>

This should give you all permissions for all custom fields for all profiles. You can use CustomObject entries as well if you want object-level security settings. Note: CustomObject requires you to manually specify standard objects (e.g. Account, Case) to get those objects, instead of just using the wildcard.