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Re: This is a duplicate question: At best is a related question, not a duplicate. The other question has nothing to do with comparing Salesforce's account of data within and outside of its system. Which is to say, "this question has NOT been asked before and already has an answer." Posted a question to meta on the topic of this question being a dup here.

Question: Been playing around with the weekly exports, and noticed something a bit off - that being the size of the "Weekly Export" is roughly 60-MB, but the admin report for "Data Storage" roughly states 220-MB is being used. Why is the size of "Weekly Export" much smaller than the "Data Storage" size being reported?

List of 81 CSV files and filesize retrieved from the single zipfile from the weekly export:

(Storage,Record Count): Filename

  • (25305KB,37921): Contact
  • (18097KB,37921): Account
  • (12415KB,37921): npo02__Household__c
  • (5495KB,38013): EntityHistory
  • (21KB,92): npe5__Affiliation__c
  • (13KB,18): User
  • (9KB,96): FieldHistory
  • (4KB,38): FeedFieldHistory
  • (3KB,9): RecordType
  • (2KB,9): UserRole
  • (2KB,0): Opportunity
  • (1KB,0): AccountContactRole , Announcement , Approval , Asset , Attachment , bde__Batch__c , BusinessProcess , Campaign , CampaignMember , CanvasFeedItem , Case , CaseComment , CaseContactRole , CaseHistory2 , CaseSolution , ContentContent , ContentReference , ContentVersion , Contract , ContractContactRole , Document , EmailDisclaimer , EmailRoutingAddress , Endorsement , EntitySubscription , Event , EventRelation , FeedComment , FeedPost , FeedTrackedChange , FileFieldData , FiscalYearSettings , Idea , IdeaComment , InboundSocialPost , JigsawSavedSearch , Lead , MatchingInformation , MetricsTransmissionHistory , NewsFeed , Note , NotifDeliveryUserPref , npe01__OppPayment__c , npe03__Recurring_Donation__c , npe4__Relationship__c , npe4__Relationship_Error__c , OpportunityCompetitor , OpportunityContactRole , OpportunityHistory , OpportunityLineItem , OrgWideEmailAddress , Partner , Period , Pricebook2 , PricebookEntry , ProcessInstance , ProcessInstanceStep , ProcessInstanceWorkitem , Product2 , PushIntent , PushProfileMapping , RichTextAreaFieldData , SocialPersona , Solution , SystemStreamingChannel , Task , TaskRelation , TopicGroupActivity , TopicUserActivity , TrendingTopic

List of Storage Usage via Salesforce:

Record Type_(Record Count,Storage)

  • Accounts_(37921,74.1MB)
  • Contacts_(37921,74.1MB)
  • Households_(37921,74.1MB)
  • Affiliations_(92,184KB)
  • Relationship Lookup_(20,40KB)
  • Relationship Settings_(1,2KB)
  • Recurring Donations Settings_(1,2KB)
  • BulkDataEntry_(1,2KB)
  • Batch Data Entry Config_(1,2KB)
  • Affiliations Settings_(1,2KB)
  • Households Settings_(1,2KB)
  • Contacts And Orgs Settings_(1,2KB)
  • Relationships_(0,0 B)
  • Payments_(0,0 B)
  • Opportunities_(0,0 B)
  • Recurring Donations_(0,0 B)
  • Campaign Members_(0,0 B)
  • Leads_(0,0 B)
  • Campaigns_(0,0 B)
  • Batches_(0,0 B)
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  • 1
    possible duplicate of How does SalesForce calculate Data Storage usage amount?
    – ca_peterson
    Commented Apr 27, 2014 at 1:59
  • 1
    @ca_peterson: Thanks, thought the only answer on that question does not provide a way to calculator how the “Data Storage” size is reached by Salesforce, nor does it give a way to relate it to the weekly export size. At best the question is related, it is not a duplicate of this question; link in the answer on that question is also broken, and appear the core content of that answer was provided within the contents of the link.
    – blunders
    Commented Apr 27, 2014 at 3:04

1 Answer 1

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Short Answer: The data storage size reported by Salesforce is based on a fixed size per record type and little relation to how many bytes it would take to store that data in a database. The Weekly Export is a collection of zipped CSVs. Each byte will contribute to the file size, which will be further altered by the compression.

The weekly data export is not stored in the same way that Salesforce stores data so you can't really make a direct comparison between the two.

The weekly export is primarily a collection of zipped CSV files, which should compress pretty well. This won't correspond with the storage cost for the records in the underlying Oracle database.

Nor does Salesforce directly account for the storage cost in the underlying Oracle database. Instead, as per the answer linked to by ca-peterson, each record type has a fixed "storage size", regardless of how many custom fields you have on it. See What are the various record sizes? Most records are allocated at 2 KB. However, some are 1, 4, or 8KB.

This often seems counter intuitive, as the reported storage requirement has little relation to the amount of field data being stored.

Another important distinction is document/file storage. This is done separately and based on the actual file size. Rich Text Fields are also stored this way.

The Setup > Data Management > Storage Usage report will give you an accurate breakdown of how much data and file storage* you are using per record and file type.

* as Salesforce accounts for it, not as it would take to store in a compressed CSV file.

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  • Great, thanks for the concise answer on the topic; and updating the link on the other answer too. Just to be clear, the only way to compare the “Weekly Export” vs. “Data Storage” is via: (1) the record counts in "Setup > Data Management > Storage Usage" and the row counts within the CSV files; (2) the document counts in "Setup > Data Management > Storage Usage" and the document counts within the export; right? Main issue I am seeing is the the export has 81 CSV files, but the in "Setup > Data Management > Storage Usage" the "Current Data Storage Usage" only lists 21 "Record Types".
    – blunders
    Commented Apr 27, 2014 at 15:00
  • In my case, due to using the NPSP the count per "Person Account" consume a record in both the Account, Household, Contact objects. Each record allocates 2KB, so each Person Account record will require 6KB of storage space; crazy logic in my opinion, though does make usage estimates easy.
    – blunders
    Commented Apr 27, 2014 at 15:04
  • Are your Weekly Exports split across multiple zip files? If so, record types may be split across multiple CSV files. Which CSVs don't have a corresponding storage usage entry?
    – Daniel Ballinger
    Commented Apr 27, 2014 at 22:21
  • Weekly Export is a single zip with 81 CSV files. As for "which CSVs don't have a corresponding storage usage entry" - have to attempt to list them, though like would be better to post this as an update to the answer. Still want the diff between the CSV files and "Storage Usage"?
    – blunders
    Commented Apr 27, 2014 at 22:36
  • Maybe just list a few of the larger CSV files that appear in the export that don't appear in the storage usage screen. I suspect some less common sObjects don't get featured.
    – Daniel Ballinger
    Commented Apr 28, 2014 at 1:49

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