EnhancedNotesSettings Metadata in SFDX

Architectural Overview#

EnhancedNotesSettings controls org-wide activation of Enhanced Notes across Salesforce. Enhanced Notes replaces the legacy Note attachment object with the Salesforce Files infrastructure backed by ContentNote and ContentDocumentLink.

Enabling this setting activates modern rich-text capabilities, embedded image support, multi-record association, document version history, and granular sharing controls for notes. In enterprise CI/CD workflows, failing to enable EnhancedNotesSettings before deploying Lightning Record Pages (FlexiPage) or Page Layouts (Layout) that contain the Notes component will cause deployment validation failures.

Directory and File Conventions#

EnhancedNotesSettings is part of the Settings metadata family and is stored within the settings directory using the member name EnhancedNotes.

Key Metadata Fields#

The XML schema for EnhancedNotesSettings defines the following primary configuration options:

Declarative XML and Package Manifest Examples#

Below is the standard EnhancedNotes.settings-meta.xml file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<EnhancedNotesSettings xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <enableEnhancedNotes>true</enableEnhancedNotes>
    <enableTasksOnNotes>true</enableTasksOnNotes>
</EnhancedNotesSettings>

Manifest Definition (package.xml)#

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
    <types>
        <members>EnhancedNotes</members>
        <name>Settings</name>
    </types>
    <version>68.0</version>
</Package>

CLI Retrieval and Deployment Commands#

Retrieve and deploy with sf CLI commands:

# Retrieve EnhancedNotes settings
sf project retrieve start --metadata Settings:EnhancedNotes

# Deploy EnhancedNotes settings to target org
sf project deploy start --metadata Settings:EnhancedNotes

Architect Best Practices and Gotchas#

• FlexiPage Dependency Sequencing: Always deploy Settings:EnhancedNotes prior to or simultaneously with FlexiPage components referencing the runtime_sales_notes Lightning component.
• Legacy Note Migration: Enabling Enhanced Notes does not automatically convert legacy Note records to ContentNote. Plan an ETL migration using tools that insert records into ContentVersion with FileType = 'SNOTE' and create associated ContentDocumentLink entries.
• File Storage Impact: Because Enhanced Notes are stored as Content records, note bodies and embedded screenshots consume File Storage rather than Data Storage allocations.

Frequently asked questions

What does EnhancedNotesSettings enable in Salesforce?

It turns on Enhanced Notes, powering rich text editing, versioning, and ContentNote storage instead of legacy plain text Note attachments.

How does enabling EnhancedNotes affect Lightning FlexiPages?

Enabling Enhanced Notes allows adding the standard Notes component to Lightning Record Pages without deployment validation errors.

Where is EnhancedNotesSettings stored in an SFDX repo?

It is stored at force-app/main/default/settings/EnhancedNotes.settings-meta.xml and retrieved as Settings:EnhancedNotes.