May 16, 2012 3 min read

Salesforce Known Issues List now Available!

For some time now I have wanted Salesforce to publish a list of known issues for the platform. After all, why spend hours trying to troubleshoot an issue that has already been found and is actively being worked on. Also, on the flip side it gives the community a better chance at supporting itself because we can work on solutions and workarounds to an issue rather than simply trying to go back and forth and confirm it’s a bug - which in my opinion enables Salesforce to continue to allow the community to primarily support itself when it comes to custom development.

So I thought I would take a moment to go through a bit of a Q&A on the topic:

So how does the known issues list work, can I submit to it?
What kind of information does the list provide?
Should I be using this now?
Everyone I know is having the same issue but it isn’t on the list, what should I do?
I found my issue on the list should I log a ticket still?
Are you happy now?

So how does the known issues list work, can I submit to it?

My understanding is that as known issues are confirmed by Salesforce they will make a decision to share the issue with the community. There is not a mechanism for us to add to the known issues list. It is just that simple.

What kind of information does the list provide?

The issues list provides quite a bit of information about the issues itself, how to reproduce the issue, a potential workaround, and the current status of the issue. The site itself also provides a great set of tools to search and filter the known issue list. It is very similar to the way the idea exchange works. You can filter by category for a list of known issues as well as perform a general keyword search.

Should I be using this now?

Yes, you should be using this now. Currently there is a list of known issues for the pending Summer ’12 release and I encourage everyone to take a look and see if any of the issues reported will affect you. It is important to note however, that the issue list is not a substitution for testing your current functionality in a sandbox environment with Summer ’12 enabled. It can, however, be a valuable reference tool when attempting to confirm that an issue you are experiencing is already known and is being addressed.

Everyone I know is having the same issue but it isn’t on the list, what should I do?

Log a ticket with Salesforce. The issues that show up on the list are at Salesforce’s discretion so there is no guarantee that an issue you are experiencing will be on the list, but one way to potentially influence this list is to make sure you are logging a ticket so that Salesforce can gauge an issues impact on the community.

I found my issue on the list should I still log a ticket?

I would say yes, log a ticket. Especially if you have premier support. The known issue list is not a replacement for support and I feel there are advantages to engaging your premier support team to let them know that you are having an issue and the impact it is having to your business. Even though an issue is listed it does not mean that it accurately represents the urgency or critical nature of the issue to your business so you should actively engage Salesforce and give them the opportunity to help you succeed.

Are you happy now?

Ha! :) Yes I am happy now. You know I have been working with the platform for a number of years now and sometimes there are things that are missing from the platform that I desperately want or think I need and in that moment they seem so simple to implement or provide. I won’t pretend to understand why it took so long for Salesforce to actively publish a known issue list for the platform. I have developed my own conspiracy theories over the years about why they didn’t already have this, but ultimately I am glad that this is now available and it’s one less thing for me to gripe about.