What's happening with Salesforce Lightning in January?

UPDATE: Automatic switch to Lightning delayed until January 2020

Did you get an email from Salesforce, “REMINDER: Critical Update for Lightning Experience …”? Are you full of questions? Worried you are about to be struck by lightning? You don’t need a faraday cage, just a plan.

Is Salesforce really forcing us all to move to Lighting next month?

Sort of. Lightning Experience (LEX) is the latest Salesforce UI—user interface, or a combination of how things look and what you can do with your data. If you aren’t already using LEX, the UI you have been using all this time, called “Classic”, isn’t going anywhere for now, but chances are good it will disappear eventually. Right now you are still able to switch back and forth between the two. Next month, Salesforce is just giving you a regular and more obvious nudge towards using LEX.

What's going to happen in my Salesforce instance?

Some users will be switched automatically to LEX every week, on Sunday. They can easily switch back to Classic, and Classic will stick around for the rest of the week. (It’s also ok to have folks using both Classic and LEX!) Then, the next week, they’ll get switched to LEX again.

But, if you aren’t ready for LEX and want to avoid that weekly annoyance for your users, you can adjust settings to keep them all in Classic for now. Let’s get into the details. (Skip the explanation and go right to the settings.)

Which users will switch to LEX every week?

Any user whose profile has the Lighting Experience User setting turned on can use LEX now and will switch every week starting in October. This includes all standard profiles (who have LEX turned on by default) and any custom profiles that have that setting turned on. You can’t change the setting on standard profiles, but you totally can on custom profiles.

How do I stop my users from switching weekly?

You’ll need to put all your users on custom profiles and turn off that Lightning Experience User setting in the custom profile. Most nonprofits are likely using custom profiles already, except for the standard profile called System Administrator.

(Here we insert our own gentle nudge: If you have most of your regular users set as System Adminstrators, it’s probably too many, and they will all be getting switched to LEX weekly. Whether you are moving to LEX now or later, this is a great time to move them to a profile that’s a bit less powerful!)

Check out the Extra Help how-to below if you need help figuring out the whole custom profile thing.

Should I switch to LEX now/soon/never?

LEX has been developed a ton over the last few years, and almost all its features are either on par with or better than what is in Classic now. There are some nice UI bells and whistles, and the interface is very modern. And of course, all new features are coming only to LEX, so Classic isn’t going to get any better from here on in. The few things left only in Classic won’t get in most people’s way. We recommend switching these days.

What does switching to LEX entail?

First and foremost, Nonprofit Success Pack is 100% LEX ready! If you don’t have a lot of customization on top of that, switching to LEX is likely going to be easy for you. Things like custom buttons, visualforce pages, and other custom UI are going to need to be reviewed for their compatibility and potentially updated.

No matter if your switch will be simple or you’ll need more technical fixes first, good user adoption practices will serve you well here. Luckily, Salesforce has a ton of resources to help you out!

• Lightning Transition Assistant right in your instance
• Salesforce.org free in-person clinics (happening now!)
• Salesforce.org free 6-week bootcamp (starts October 3)
• Journey to Lighting Experience landing page
• Lightning Experience Power of Us group

And, of course, if you need help, give us a shout.

Ok, I'm definitely not ready for LEX. What are my next steps?

Before October:

1. Get all your non-admin users off the standard System Adminstrator profile and onto custom profiles.
2. Turn off the Lightning User Experience setting on the custom profiles. Note: This means they won’t be able to switch back and forth at all.
3. Decide what to do for your admins.
   • You can clone the standard System Administrator profile to make a custom version and turn off LEX even for your admins, or…
   • Leave your admins on the standard System Administrator profile. They will get LEX. They can start to get used to it and plan for the transition. Remember, they can switch back and forth to Classic with a click!

Need even more details? Check out this critical update FAQ or we can help.

Scary storm or exciting lightshow?

It seems like Lightning Experience is going to only get better, and we are excited to see the ways our nonprofit friends are already innovating with it! While it is just around the corner, with a bit of planning and preparation now, that October lightning strike doesn’t have to cause too much static for you or your users.

Extra Help: How to Check Your Profiles

Standard profiles can’t be edited and will be on LEX by default. If you want to turn off the LEX setting for users, you’ll need to move all users to custom profiles.

Search setup for “Profiles.” You can check each profile one by one or add the field Custom to a profile list view, highlighted below. Remember, you only need to handle profiles your users are actually assigned to. In each profile is an Assigned Users button to check.

When you’ve identified which profiles are custom, check to see if they have the Lightning Experience User setting turned on. Even if you didn’t do it yourself, they may have it on, depending on how old they are or how they were made. Find the System Permissions section of the profile and click Edit.

And then scroll down to the setting called Lightning Experience User (use “find on page” in your browser).

• Box checked: Users not already seeing LEX will get switched to LEX once a week and will have to switch back to Classic by hand.
• Box unchecked: Users can’t switch to LEX at all.

(Thanks to Matthew Scholtz for researching the details of this critical update!)