Salesforce Winter ’27 is around the corner, bringing a mix of new platform enhancements, security improvements, and mandatory release updates. While Salesforce handles the upgrade automatically, it’s important for admins and developers to review the upcoming changes, test their orgs, and resolve any potential issues before production is upgraded.
In this blog, we’ll look at the Winter ’27 release timeline, the most important release updates, and how you can prepare your Salesforce org for a smooth transition.
Winter ’27 Release Timeline
Salesforce will roll out the Winter ’27 release across production environments during the following weekends:
- August 29, 2026
- October 3, 2026
- October 10, 2026
Your production upgrade date depends on the Salesforce instance hosting your org. You can check the exact maintenance schedule using Salesforce Trust. If you don’t know your instance, you can find it under Company Information in Salesforce Setup.
Before production is upgraded, Salesforce also provides:
- Preview Sandboxes to test the new release using your existing configuration.
- Pre-Release Orgs to explore new features before they become available.
- Winter ’27 Release Notes to understand all upcoming changes and release updates.
What to Expect in Winter ’27
Winter ’27 mainly focuses on improving platform security, authentication, accessibility, and overall reliability. Several release updates will become mandatory, so reviewing your customizations and integrations early can help avoid issues after the upgrade.
The most important updates include:
- Authorized Email Domains
- Accessibility Enhancements
- Profile Filtering
- OAuth Username-Password Flow Retirement
- Order Management Tax Calculation updates
- Previously deferred Release Updates
Let’s look at each one.
1. Adopt Authorized Email Domains
What’s Changing?
Organizations performing bulk user email updates will now need to configure Authorized Email Domains or DKIM to support email verification.
How to Prepare
- Configure Authorized Email Domains or DKIM.
- Test bulk email updates in a sandbox.
- Verify the updated email verification process before production deployment.
This helps ensure user email updates continue to work securely after Winter ’27.
2. Enable Accessibility Enhancements
What’s Changing?
Salesforce is improving the accessibility of Lightning Experience by enhancing components such as cards, docked containers, menu lists, and panels, especially for users viewing pages at 200% browser zoom or higher.
How to Prepare
- Test important Lightning pages in a sandbox.
- Increase browser zoom to 200% or higher.
- Review custom Lightning components and layouts.
- Fix any UI issues before enabling the update in production.
These improvements help create a better experience for users who rely on accessibility features.
3. Enable Profile Filtering
What’s Changing?
Users without the View All Profiles permission will only be able to see their own profile information. Customizations that reference another user’s profile may be affected.
How to Prepare
Review your org for Profile Name references in:
- Flows
- Validation Rules
- Apex Classes
- Lightning Components
- Reports
- Dashboards
- Formula Fields
- Approval Processes
- Assignment Rules
- Custom Metadata
- Custom Settings
Where possible, update the logic instead of relying on profile names. Only grant View All Profiles if it’s genuinely required.
4. Retirement of OAuth Username-Password Flow
What’s Changing?
The OAuth 2.0 Username-Password Flow for Connected Apps is being retired. Integrations using this authentication method must be updated before the enforcement date.
How to Prepare
- Review Login History to identify integrations using this flow.
- Move integrations to a supported authentication method, such as an External Client App.
- Test every integration in your sandbox.
- Disable the old OAuth flow only after successful validation.
This change improves the security of Salesforce integrations by replacing an outdated authentication method.
5. Tax Rate Calculations and Adjustments
What’s Changing?
Organizations using Salesforce Order Management should review tax calculations involving cancellations, returns, fees, and adjustment taxes, as Winter ’27 introduces changes to how these scenarios are handled.
How to Prepare
Test your Order Management processes in a sandbox before enabling the update in production to ensure tax calculations continue to work correctly.
6. Previously Deferred Release Updates
Some release updates originally planned for earlier Salesforce releases have now been moved to Winter ’27. If your organization postponed testing these changes, now is the right time to review them before they become mandatory.
Final Thoughts
The Salesforce Winter ’27 release brings several important updates that focus on improving security, accessibility, and platform reliability. While many changes happen behind the scenes, others may impact your customizations, automations, or integrations.
The best way to prepare is to review the release notes, test all critical business processes in preview sandboxes, validate integrations, and complete regression testing before your production upgrade. Taking these steps early will help ensure a smooth transition and allow your organization to take full advantage of the Winter ’27 release.
