How do I optimize the number of API calls for my instance?

When installing Spanning Backup for Salesforce, your instance is automatically set up with a limit of 15,000 API calls per day, to ensure that Spanning Backup does not exhaust the API call limit for your instance.  You can increase or decrease the API calls limit in your Spanning dashboard.

Spanning can back up between 200-1000 records in your account per API call (depending on how many fields are in each record), with the exception of Attachments, as we are only able to back up one attachment per API call.  So, we recommend editing the Spanning API call limit accordingly, so that Spanning can back up all of the data in your account in a timely manner without exhausting all of the API calls in your Salesforce instance.

In order to help determine the correct number of API calls for your instance, you can first check the number of available API calls in your Salesforce instance.  To do so, follow these steps:

1. Log into your Salesforce account as the admin user
2. Click the Setup button in the upper-right corner of the screen
3. In the left-side navigation panel, navigate to Monitor > System Overview (if using Salesforce Lightning, navigate to Environments > System Overview)

The API usage is listed in the top right and lists a percentage used and the maximum (see screenshot below):



Additionally, you can investigate how many total attachments are in your instance by following the steps below:

1. Log into your Salesforce account as the admin user
2. Click the Setup button in the upper-right corner of the screen
3. Click the 'Data Management' button in the left-panel navigation pane
4. Select the Storage Usage option from the sub-menu
5. Here, in the 'Current File Storage Usage' sub-heading, you will see the number of Attachments (see screenshot below):

Note: If using Salesforce Lightning, follow these steps instead:
1. Log into your Salesforce account as the admin user
2. Click the Setup button in the upper-right corner of the screen
3. Navigate to Data > Storage Usage
4. Here, in the 'Current File Storage Usage' sub-heading, you will see the number of Attachments (see screenshot below):



It is important to remember that the initial backup of your Salesforce data takes the longest to complete, as we are backing up all of the data in your account.  After the initial backup completes, all of your subsequent daily backups will complete much faster, as we will only be backing up new and changed data.

Please note that if the Spanning API limit is set too low, then it may take many days for the backups to complete, as the API limit will be reached before the backups complete.  If the Spanning API limit is set too high, then Spanning may use a larger portion of your organization's API calls then you are comfortable with, which may result in other applications that need API calls failing.

Additionally, please remember that you can always update the number of API calls that Spanning uses, so after your initial backup completes, you can recalibrate this number to not use as many API calls.

If you have any additional questions, please contact support@spanning.com