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System Administrator 632System Administrator 632 

force.com free license org

my old force.com 100 free license org has just started a 90 day countdown (showing 86 days remaining in the top right hand corner).
has anybody else had this just happen?
Best Answer chosen by System Administrator 632
jigarshahjigarshah
Craig,

You can try reaching out to Salesforce support to udnerstand the status of your org. Usually if its a free org provided by Salesforce it remains that way and has remain unchanged.

If my answer has helped address your issue, please mark the thread as SOLVED and mark it as the BEST ANSWER.

All Answers

jigarshahjigarshah
I presume, you may have signed up for this free org from https://www.salesforce.com/ and using the Login > Sign Up button. Any org created in this manner is a 90 day trial Salesforce org with full blown features. This is generally applicable and relevant for customers who need an evaluation and intend to purchase Salesforce.com for their orgs. These orgs will automatically expire after a 90 day period and hence the countdown.

Any customizations done on these orgs are lost unless that org is converted to a paid Salesforce org.

If you need an org for a longer time, you can get a lifetime full blown free Developer Edition Salesforc eorg with 5 licenses by signing up for it from https://developer.salesforce.com/ using the Sign Up button. This org is typically aimed for usage by developers and admins who intend to get handson with Salesforce features.

Please mark the thread as SOLVED and answer as BEST ANSWER if it helps address your issue.
System Administrator 632System Administrator 632
thanks jigarshah. What you say is presently true. However there once (at least 8+ years ago) was a free 100 (limited) force.com license offered to encourage platform development. But you've made me think that this org has probably its status changed to trial. 

cheers,
craig
jigarshahjigarshah
Craig,

You can try reaching out to Salesforce support to udnerstand the status of your org. Usually if its a free org provided by Salesforce it remains that way and has remain unchanged.

If my answer has helped address your issue, please mark the thread as SOLVED and mark it as the BEST ANSWER.
This was selected as the best answer
EdCodeEdCode
I had the same issue: back around 2010 I applied for a Force.com 100 Free licenses and recently this instances has been closed without clear explanations. Salesforce displayed a warning (90 days remaining) so I just downloaded all data and let it go.

When the promotion was launched by Salesforce.com, they never said these 100 Free licenses of Force.com were going to expire some day.

Naughty Salesforce Marketing Team! :-)
Dushyant JamwalDushyant Jamwal
Hi,
Facing the same issue with this 100 user force.com org we have. Been running a small app on this which has become important to us over the years. Currently pursuing with Salesforce Tech Support but would appreciate if anyone has previously got an explanation or have resolved this problem.
Ian Gotts 7Ian Gotts 7
I have raised a case too. 
 
Ian Gotts 7Ian Gotts 7
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2774912/salesforce-com-offering-no-charge-access-to-force-com.html
 
System Administrator 728System Administrator 728
Best of luck, but I got nowhere with Salesforce when I originally raised this back in November 2017. I even emailed Benioff and got no reply. They pushed me onto a newbie junior sales guy who had no knowledge or interest in the historical offer and we ended up just paying up. That wasn't the worst of it as you still end up having to do a migration to a new paid instance (which wasn't a trivial exercise in our case).

It seems that they periodically audit usage of these free org licenses and if they exceed some low threshold they push you to becoming a paying customer. I'd be interested to know how you get along.

Craig (aka System Administrator 632)
Dushyant JamwalDushyant Jamwal
I'd agree with the post above...I logged a case last year and the SF Team refused to acknoweldge this offer was ever made. They asked for evidence or contract from SF stating that this was a lifetime offer. I also believe a comment was made that "we have the right to change the terms of the offer made". Sales Team got involved as this was pursued as an upsell. Eventually we decided to move off the app that we were using and look for an alternative. Did retain the Org though by paying up for a single license. 
Ian Gotts 7Ian Gotts 7
Salesforce.com offering no-charge access to Force.com - | JUN 15, 2009 
https://www.computerworld.com/article/2774912/salesforce-com-offering-no-charge-access-to-force-com.html
 
Dushyant JamwalDushyant Jamwal
Besides evidence if i rememer correctly the other argument SF Support made was the time period of the offer...it does look like they are capping it to 10 years. 
Ian Gotts 7Ian Gotts 7
Bumped into this https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/comments/i1xauc/fck_salesforce_or_how_i_migrated_away_from_sf_in/
Ian Gotts 7Ian Gotts 7
I found the agreement from back in 2009  https://www.salesforce.com/content/dam/web/en_us/www/documents/legal/Agreements/product-specific-terms/forcedotcom-free-edition-agreement.pdf
System Administrator 728System Administrator 728
good find. The clause "We reserve the right to change our pricing policies for the Force.com Free Edition at any time on 90 days’ notice given in accordance with Section 11.1" seems to be what they are basing it on :-(
Dushyant JamwalDushyant Jamwal
Seems a bit petty taking this approach...not sure how many such orgs are around but i would assume this could have been handled better. If you want to encourage such orgs to come into the paying mode there are gentler ways...its a classic only org, data limits and governer limits are in place, other limiations around functionalities also exist so over time people would move to buying licenses. Displaying a notice at login and just shutting it down seemed rather high-handed to me....we did land up taking a single license to keep our custom app alive while we transitioned into an alternative solution.
System Administrator 632System Administrator 632
I agree. I was motivated to look for alternatives exactly because of the way that they handled it. They were arrogant and disrespectful.