How to Delete a Flow in Salesforce

Go to Setup → Flows, open the flow’s action menu, and select View Details and Versions. Deactivate the active version before deleting it. You must resolve any paused interviews before deleting the version.

Only one version can be active at a time. Activating another version automatically deactivates the current one. If the flow has never been activated, you can delete it without deactivating a version first.

You cannot delete a flow while one of its versions is active. Deletion is permanent, so back up the flow first.

In the versions list, click Del next to an inactive version. You cannot delete an active version, and paused or waiting interviews must also be cleared before you can remove the version.

A new version does not replace older versions. Older versions remain until you delete them.
See the bulk deletion section to remove multiple flow versions.

Salesforce blocks flow deletion in a few cases. The error usually tells you what is preventing the deletion.

• A version is still active: You cannot delete an active flow version. Deactivate the version on the flow’s Versions page, then try again.
• The flow is used elsewhere: Salesforce may show this message:

“This flow definition is referenced elsewhere in Salesforce. Remove the usage and try again.”

The error window shows Reason and Section. The link in Section takes you to the reference. For example, if a quick action uses the flow, remove the action from the page layout, delete the action, and then delete the flow. If a Lightning record page contains the flow component, open the page from the link, remove the component, save the page, and try again.

A flow can also be referenced by newer Salesforce features. For example if you see Generative AI Function Definition in the Section column the remove the flow from the prompt templates and agent actions.

• Check for paused interviews: Paused flow interviews can prevent you from deleting a flow. Check Setup > Paused and Failed Flow Interviews, the Monitor tab in the Automation app, the Paused Flow Interviews list in Salesforce Classic, or Paused Flows in the Salesforce mobile app.

Users can delete their own paused interviews if they have Run Flows permission or are set as the Flow User. A large number of paused interviews can also cause new flows that try to pause to fail when the platform limit is reached.

• The flow is managed: If the flow comes from a managed package, Salesforce does not provide a Delete action for it. Uninstall the package to remove the flow. 
• An old version references a field or class: An inactive flow version can still reference a field or Apex class. Salesforce can prevent you from deleting that component until you remove the flow versions that reference it.

Bulk cleanup is needed in two cases: when one flow has many old versions or when your org has many unused flows.

Each time you activate a flow, Salesforce creates a new version. A flow can have up to 50 versions. When it reaches that limit, you must delete an old version before you can save another one. Old versions can also prevent you from deleting fields or Apex classes that they reference.

Once you hit the 50 versions limit, you can’t save new changes until you delete some. Removing them one by one in Setup is slow, so use Salesforce Inspector Reloaded and the Tooling API instead. 

Before you start:

Open Salesforce Inspector Reloaded, select Data Export, and turn on the Tooling API toggle.

Run the query below, replacing Your_Flow_API_Name with the flow’s exact API name. An exact match keeps other flows with similar names out of the results.

The Status = ‘Obsolete’ filter selects only replaced versions. It leaves out the active version and any drafts someone may still need. Change the VersionNumber cutoff to control how much history you keep, then review the results before you continue.

Select Click Delete Records -> Run Delete

When the operation finishes, review the results for failed rows. Some deletions may fail because a version has unfinished interviews. If many rows fail, reduce the batch size and try again.

Salesforce CLI is useful when you manage metadata in a project, delete flows across environments, or need a repeatable, reviewable process. There are two common cases:

It retrieves the active version, or the latest version if none is active. It does not back up every historical version. Keep the retrieved .flow-meta.xml file in version control or another safe place outside Salesforce.

Each flow version is a Flow record in the Tooling API, so you can delete versions one at a time with sf data. You don’t need to deactivate anything.

List the obsolete versions:

sf data query –use-tooling-api –target-org myOrg –result-format csv –query “SELECT Id, VersionNumber, Status FROM Flow WHERE Definition.DeveloperName = ‘Your_Flow_API_Name’ AND Status = ‘Obsolete’ ORDER BY VersionNumber”

Review the list. To keep recent history, add a cutoff such as AND VersionNumber < 40.

Delete one version:

sf data delete record –use-tooling-api –sobject Flow –record-id 301Ws0000689lEZIAY –target-org flow

Delete all obsolete versions in one go:

sf data query –use-tooling-api –target-org myOrg –result-format csv –query “SELECT Id FROM Flow WHERE Definition.DeveloperName = ‘Your_Flow_API_Name’ AND Status = ‘Obsolete'” 2>/dev/null | tail -n +2 | while read -r id; do sf data delete record –use-tooling-api –sobject Flow –record-id “$id” –target-org myOrg; done

The Status = ‘Obsolete’ filter keeps the active version and drafts out of the delete.

Salesforce won’t delete a flow that still has an active version. Deactivate the flow in Setup → Flows → open the flow → Deactivate, or from the CLI:

sf data query –use-tooling-api –target-org myOrg –query “SELECT Id, ActiveVersionId FROM FlowDefinition WHERE DeveloperName = ‘Your_Flow_API_Name'”

Copy the ActiveVersionId. The –use-tooling-api flag is required because flow definitions are metadata. myOrg is your org alias. 

sf api request rest “/services/data/v64.0/tooling/sobjects/FlowDefinition/300XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX” –method PATCH –body ‘{“Metadata”:{“activeVersionNumber”:0}}’ –target-org myOrg

Run the first query again and confirm that ActiveVersionId is now empty.

For an org without source tracking, run:

sf project delete source –metadata Flow:Your_Flow_API_Name –target-org myOrg

If this still fails with insufficient access rights on cross-reference id after you deactivate the flow, delete each remaining version directly through the Tooling API instead. When the last version is deleted, the flow goes with it.

sf data query –use-tooling-api –target-org myOrg –result-format csv –query “SELECT Id FROM Flow WHERE Definition.DeveloperName = ‘Your_Flow_API_Name'” 2>/dev/null | tail -n +2 | while read -r id; do sf data delete record –use-tooling-api –sobject Flow –record-id “$id” –target-org myOrg; done

This command deletes the flow completely, including every version. It queries the Tooling API for the IDs of all versions of the flow whose API name you specify and returns them in CSV format. 

Confirm the flow is gone. An empty result means it’s deleted:

sf data query –use-tooling-api –target-org myOrg –query “SELECT Id FROM FlowDefinition WHERE DeveloperName = ‘Your_Flow_API_Name'”

This deletes the flow and all of its versions from the org, and removes the matching source file from your local project. Use the flow’s API name, not its label.

• To validate the deletion without applying it, add –check-only.
• To skip the confirmation prompt in scripts, add –no-prompt.

If you have many unused flows, use the Active column to find inactive ones and check their dependencies before deleting them. If you need to remove inactive flows and processes in bulk, see Manage Flows and Processes in XL-Connector.

Delete a flow by first deactivating its active version, then deleting it. If Salesforce blocks the deletion, read the error message and follow the referenced dependency. Regularly remove unused versions to avoid reaching the 50-version limit.