The Vantage View | Salesforce

Sync Email as Salesforce Activity: What Admins Must Do Now

Written by David Cockrum | Jun 13, 2026 11:59:59 AM

Salesforce is automatically migrating orgs from Einstein Activity Capture (EAC) to Sync Email as Salesforce Activity. If your org has an assigned migration date, emails marked "Private" risk losing their body content permanently once the switch happens. Admins need a clear plan before the deadline.

This guide explains what changed, who's affected, the exact steps to take, the timeline, and the most common questions teams are asking right now.

Quick Answer

Sync Email as Salesforce Activity stores captured email as native activity data so it works with reports, automation, and agentic AI features. During migration, any email marked "Private" converts to "Header Only" — sender, recipient, date, and subject are kept, but the body is discarded and cannot be recovered later. To preserve email bodies for AI and reporting, users must change sharing from "Private" to "Share with Everyone" before their migration date.

TL;DR

  • What changed: Salesforce is auto-migrating EAC email capture to Sync Email as Salesforce Activity, storing email as native, AI-ready activity data.
  • The risk: "Private" emails migrate as "Header Only" — the body is permanently lost and excluded from generative AI and agent features.
  • The deadline: Each org has its own assigned date. You can also migrate early to start sooner.
  • Admin action: Set "Share with Everyone" as the org default and ask users to update private emails they want to keep.
  • Vantage Point relevance: This is a data-readiness and governance decision as much as a setting — the right configuration depends on your compliance posture and CRM strategy.

What Is Sync Email as Salesforce Activity?

Sync Email as Salesforce Activity is Salesforce's model for storing captured email as standard activity data on the platform. Unlike the older Einstein Activity Capture behavior, the email lives natively in Salesforce and is available to reports, automation workflows, and agentic AI tools such as Agentforce.

Emails are captured under one of two privacy settings:

  • Full Email captures the entire email body, making the content available to agentic AI features.
  • Header Only captures just the sender, recipient, date, and subject — and is not available to generative AI or agent features.

Why This Migration Matters in 2026

Email is one of the richest sources of relationship and deal context in any CRM. As teams adopt agentic AI for sales and service, that context only becomes useful if the underlying data is actually stored and shareable.

The migration matters for three reasons:

  1. AI readiness. Generative and agent features can only reason over email bodies captured as "Full Email." "Header Only" records are invisible to those tools.
  2. Irreversibility. Unmigrated or private email bodies can't be retrieved after the cutover. There is no undo.
  3. Governance trade-offs. Making email "Share with Everyone" improves AI and reporting value but has real privacy and access implications that should be a deliberate decision, not an accident of timing.

How the Migration Works

Salesforce displays a banner notification in affected orgs and assigns each org an automatic migration date. Here is the core behavior:

Sharing setting before migration Result after migration Available to AI/agents?
Share with Everyone Migrates as Full Email Yes
Private Migrates as Header Only (body discarded) No

Two important constraints:

  • Admins cannot override a user's sharing settings on their behalf. Each user must update their own private emails.
  • Lost bodies are not recoverable. Once a private email migrates as Header Only, the body is gone.

What Admins Should Do Next

Use this checklist before your org's migration date:

  1. Confirm your migration date. Check the in-org banner notification so you know your exact deadline.
  2. Decide your org default. To include existing and future email in AI features, turn on "Share with Everyone" as the default sharing setting for the org.
  3. Notify users. Tell users to review their captured emails. If they need to retain the body of any email currently marked "Private," they must change that email's sharing setting to "Share with Everyone" before migration.
  4. Review documentation. Familiarize your team with the migration process, prerequisites, and expected behaviors.
  5. Migrate early if ready. You can complete the migration yourself before your assigned date to get started sooner.
  6. Align with compliance. Confirm that "Share with Everyone" fits your privacy, access, and recordkeeping obligations before flipping the default.

Step-by-step admin action summary

  • Audit current EAC configuration and sharing defaults.
  • Set the org-wide default to "Share with Everyone" if AI access is the goal.
  • Send a clear user communication with the deadline and exact steps.
  • Spot-check high-value reps' captured email after the change.

How Vantage Point Helps

This migration is a small setting with large downstream effects on data quality, AI enablement, and governance. Vantage Point helps organizations evaluate, implement, and optimize Salesforce and HubSpot based on their operating model, data needs, adoption goals, and growth strategy.

If your team wants help, we can support you through our Salesforce implementation and advisory practice, align the change with your compliance and security requirements, and keep your org healthy long-term through managed services and ongoing support. For teams preparing email data for AI, our AI-driven personalization and analytics work ensures the underlying data is actually usable.

If your team is evaluating how this applies to Salesforce, HubSpot, integrations, or CRM governance, Vantage Point can help assess the right next step and build a practical implementation plan. A complimentary org health check is a fast way to confirm you're configured correctly before the deadline.

FAQ

What is Sync Email as Salesforce Activity?

It is Salesforce's model for storing captured email as native activity data on the platform, where it can be used by reports, automation, and agentic AI tools. It replaces the older Einstein Activity Capture email behavior. Emails are stored as either "Full Email" or "Header Only."

What happens to emails marked "Private" during migration?

Private emails migrate as "Header Only," meaning only the sender, recipient, date, and subject are kept. The email body is discarded and cannot be retrieved later. Header Only emails are not available to generative AI or agent features.

Can admins change a user's email sharing setting for them?

No. Admins cannot override a user's sharing settings on their behalf. Each user must change their own emails from "Private" to "Share with Everyone" before the migration date if they want to preserve the body.

What is the difference between Full Email and Header Only?

Full Email captures the entire email body and makes it available to agentic AI features. Header Only captures just the sender, recipient, date, and subject and is excluded from generative AI and agent features. Choose Full Email when you want AI and reporting to use email content.

When does the migration happen?

Each org is assigned its own automatic migration date, shown in an in-org banner notification. Admins can also complete the migration manually before that date to start sooner. Review your banner to confirm your specific deadline.

Is making email "Share with Everyone" the right choice for every org?

Not necessarily. Sharing email broadly improves AI and reporting value but has privacy and access implications. Treat it as a governance decision and confirm it fits your compliance obligations before setting it as the org default. Vantage Point can help weigh the trade-offs.

How should we communicate this change to users?

Send a clear message with the migration date, the risk to private emails, and the exact steps to change sharing to "Share with Everyone." Ask users to review captured emails and update any private ones they need to keep before the deadline. A short, deadline-driven note works best.