My Experience with Salesforce Passwords and API Integrations
As a developer working with Salesforce APIs, I’ve learned the hard way that passwords aren’t just for logging in—they can break your integrations if you’re not careful.
I was using the username + password + security token method to connect to Salesforce. Everything worked fine… until one day, my integration stopped working. After some investigation, I realized my Salesforce password had expired.
What I Learned About Salesforce Passwords
- Salesforce passwords expire based on your org’s policy (usually every 90 days by default).
- When a password expires, you must reset it before you can log in again—even for API calls.
- For API integrations, this means if you don’t update your code with the new password and security token, your integration will fail.
How I Handle This Now
After dealing with this problem, I learned a few best practices:
- Use a dedicated integration user – I created a separate Salesforce account for API access so I wouldn’t mess with my personal credentials.
- Set the password to never expire – if your org allows it, this avoids sudden outages.
- Move toward OAuth – instead of relying on my password, I’m exploring OAuth JWT flows. This way, the integration authenticates with a digital certificate or client credentials, and I don’t have to worry about password expiration at all.
My Takeaway
If you’re using Salesforce API with a password, don’t forget the security token, and be aware that passwords can expire. For more robust integrations, OAuth is the way forward.