• Disable Scheduled Apex Jobs
• Disable Outbound Messages or point them to QA server endpoints.
• Reconfigure External Web Service calls for a non-production environment
• Overwrite Custom Settings to non-production ones - might vary between projects but worth to check. Sometimes custom integration credentials are saved as Custom Settings.
• Disable S2S connection copied from production (if applies)
• Disable Analytic Snapshots
• Get the new Sandbox Org ID and instance Id if required
• Remove the email suffix for required users
• Create any required users who don't exist in Production
• Regenerate (or completely disable) Inbound Email Services
• Delete / modify entries in Remote Site Settings if you don't want to perform certain callouts.
• Disable "Big Deal Alert" on Opportunities - can be embarassing to send an email with "My awesome test Opp !!1" to CEO
• If you have managed packages with API keys (like FinancialForce) - ask their support teams to regenerate the keys
• If you have "power users" that will coordinate User Acceptance Testing - create entries in Delegated Administration area so they can "login as"

(since Spring '13)

• If you want to see the "send an email" button on Activities related list or wonder why you don't get any notifications from approval processes - setEmail Deliverability to "All Email"

(since Spring '16)

• Consider implementingSandboxPostCopy to automate steps in Apex after a sandbox is copied.

Specific for full sandboxes

• break Email addresses on Contacts, Leads etc. with suffix like it's done for users (and wherever you store email info if there's any risk of routine communication kicking in for example from workflow email alerts)
• disable Weekly Data Export?
• if you have email templates or documents with sensitive data (like Purchase Order and scanned signature of approver) it might be worthwhile to cripple them somehow (fake logo, big red "TEST ONLY" etc..). Documents won't be carried to non-full sandboxes though

• 2
  Good call on making this a community wiki answer. I'd forgotten about web service calls.

  Daniel Hoechst

  – Daniel Hoechst

  2012-08-30 04:39:55 +00:00

  CommentedAug 30, 2012 at 4:39
• 1
  This seemed like a good candidate for others to add to over time. Such as links to more details about each step.

  Daniel Ballinger

  – Daniel Ballinger

  2012-08-30 05:27:11 +00:00

  CommentedAug 30, 2012 at 5:27

Another thing I have implemented is a custom setting referenced in workflows & triggers to determine whether to perform various actions (specifically sending emails)

something similar to this:$Setup.Config_Settings__c.Send_Emails__c

It was a bugger to get implemented since there were tons of workflows, triggers, and controllers to update. Now I'm very glad I took the time to do it.You have to remember to set default org values though since custom settings don't get populated in a sandbox refresh. As of Summer 13 custom settings get copied to sandboxes.

• 2
  Good idea. I'm starting to use custom settings more and more for controlling things like this.

  Daniel Hoechst

  – Daniel Hoechst

  2012-08-30 04:34:17 +00:00

  CommentedAug 30, 2012 at 4:34

• sandbox
• bestpractice