Salesforce record attachments, like every PDF, Word doc, Excel file, and scanned image attached to your Accounts, Opportunities, Cases, and Contacts, cost $5/GB/month in Salesforce storage. The average enterprise Salesforce org accumulates 50–200 GB of new attachments per year. At $5/GB, that's $250–$1,000/month per year of compounding storage cost growing as your team grows and your CRM matures.
SharePoint and Google Drive, which most enterprise teams already pay for through Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, store the same files at effectively zero incremental cost.
CloudFiles on AppExchange syncs all Salesforce record attachments to SharePoint or Google Drive, migrating the backlog, routing new uploads automatically, and delivering real -time bidirectional sync.
What does Sync mean here?
Sync is bidirectional and real-time:
- Attach a file to a Salesforce record → it goes to SharePoint or Google Drive (not Salesforce storage)
- Add a file to the external folder from Teams or Google Drive → it appears on the Salesforce record (automatically)
- Update a file in SharePoint → updated version reflects in Salesforce (immediately)
No batch job. No scheduled sync. No export/import.
One file, in external storage, accessible from both systems simultaneously. 900,000+ files are managed this way through CloudFiles every month.
Why Are Legacy Attachments a Hidden Salesforce Storage Problem?
Salesforce stores files in two formats: modern ContentDocuments (Files) and legacy Attachments (Notes & Attachments). Legacy Attachments are the most commonly overlooked category in storage optimisation. They don't show prominently in storage reports but accumulate over the years, especially in older orgs. CloudFiles migrates both. Everything moves. Nothing is left behind, generating silent overage charges.
SharePoint or Google Drive?
SharePoint | Google Drive | |
|---|---|---|
Included with | Microsoft 365 | Google Workspace |
Best for | Teams using Teams/Office | Teams using Gmail/Docs |
Shared storage | SharePoint Sites/Libraries | Google Shared Drives |
Co-authoring | Native Office apps | Native Google Docs |
CloudFiles setup | OAuth per user | OAuth per user |
If your org uses both, CloudFiles can route different Salesforce objects to different storage backends. All storage integrations →
How Much Can Salesforce Storage Costs Be Reduced?
Teams using CloudFiles to sync attachments to SharePoint or Google Drive report 75–90% reductions in Salesforce storage costs. For a team generating 100 GB of new attachments per year, that's up to $6,000/year saved. 99% of CloudFiles customers renew annually.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Can Salesforce record attachments be synced to SharePoint or Google Drive?
Yes. CloudFiles syncs Salesforce record attachments to SharePoint or Google Drive in real time, thereby routing new uploads directly to external storage and migrating existing attachments via bulk migration.
- Does CloudFiles sync legacy Salesforce Attachments (Notes & Attachments) or only modern Files?
CloudFiles syncs both:
- Legacy Notes & Attachments (older Salesforce format)
- ContentDocuments (modern Salesforce Files)
- ContentVersions
- Chatter file attachments
All file types are included in both real-time sync and bulk migration.
- Is sync bidirectional between Salesforce and SharePoint or Google Drive?
Yes. Files uploaded to Salesforce records via CloudFiles appear in SharePoint or Google Drive immediately. Files added to the external storage folder from outside Salesforce appear on the Salesforce record automatically. No batch job, no polling.
- Can attachments from different Salesforce objects sync to different storage backends?
Yes. CloudFiles can route attachments from different Salesforce objects to different storage platforms, for example, Account attachments to SharePoint and Case attachments to Google Drive.
- How are attachments organized in SharePoint or Google Drive after sync?
Attachments are organised into folders matching the Salesforce record hierarchy, for example:
- Accounts/{Account Name}/ for Account attachments
- Opportunities/{Account Name}/{Opportunity Name}/ for deal documents
- Cases/{Case Number}/ for support case attachments
Folder names are generated from Salesforce field values, ensuring consistent organisation.
- Does syncing attachments to SharePoint or Google Drive reduce Salesforce storage costs?
Yes. Since attachments go to external storage instead of Salesforce, Salesforce storage consumption drops 75–90%. At $5/GB, this produces significant cost savings for most organizations.
- What happens to Salesforce records after attachments are moved to SharePoint or Google Drive?
Records continue to show their attachments through the CloudFiles LWC; users see no change in their workflow. The only difference is that files are now in SharePoint or Google Drive instead of Salesforce storage.
- Can shared Google Drives be used as the sync target?
Yes. CloudFiles supports Google Shared Drives (Team Drives) as well as personal Google Drive, which becomes useful for team-level document storage with shared access controls.
- Does real-time sync work for Google Drive as well as SharePoint?
Yes. CloudFiles provides real-time bidirectional sync for both SharePoint and Google Drive, with identical sync speed and behaviour regardless of storage platform.
10 How do I get started syncing Salesforce attachments to SharePoint or Google Drive?
- Install CloudFiles from AppExchange
- Connect SharePoint or Google Drive via OAuth in the CloudFiles app
- Configure folder path templates per Salesforce object
- Run the bulk migration utility for existing attachments
- All new uploads automatically route to external storage
Most organisations complete the setup in under 30 minutes. Here is a Quick start guide.
- Can Salesforce Flow automations be triggered when attachments arrive in SharePoint or Google Drive?
Yes. CloudFiles supports SharePoint file upload webhooks that fire Salesforce Flows when new files arrive in watched SharePoint folders, thereby enabling automated workflows based on external file activity.
- Why is syncing record attachments to SharePoint or Google Drive better than keeping them in Salesforce?
Syncing attachments to external storage delivers:
- 75–90% reduction in Salesforce storage costs
- Native document governance (versioning, retention, co-authoring) from SharePoint or
Google Drive - Access for non-Salesforce users (Teams, Outlook, Google Workspace) without Salesforce licenses
- No storage overage charges
- Better performance for large file repositories
- Compliance-grade audit trails and access controls in SharePoint or Google Drive
Written by: Shounak Chowdhury, HubSpot Marketing Specialist - he works on content, product marketing, and customer education initiatives. He enjoys simplifying complex workflows into practical, easy-to-understand solutions and creating content that helps teams work smarter with documents and automation.
