Keeping PDIs Available for Active Builders: Upcoming PDI Reclamation Changes

[ServiceNow]

Lately, it’s become harder for developers to get a Personal Developer Instance (PDI) when they need one.

Demand has outpaced capacity, and inactive instances are preventing builders from getting access. 

That’s why we’re reclaiming inactive PDIs as one step in a broader effort to make PDIs more consistently available for developers who are actively building.  

We know these changes may be frustrating for some developers, but it’s an important step toward improving access across the developer community.  

Here’s what’s changing and how to protect your work. 

What's Changing

We're reclaiming PDIs that meet both of these conditions: 

• 90 days or older (based on when they were provisioned) 
• Haven't had a PDI login in the last 10 days 

Background processes and developer site logins don’t count toward activity. An explicit login to your PDI is required.  

How You'll Know if You’re Affected 

No one’s PDI will be reclaimed without advance notice. If your PDI is eligible for reclamation, you’ll receive three email notifications: 

1. July 7: First notification  
2. July 10: Reminder sent one day before reclamation 
3. July 11: Reclamation notification  

If you've received a PDI reclamation email, plan for your PDI to be reclaimed even if you log in after receiving the notification. Please back up anything you want to keep before your scheduled reclaim date. 

How to Protect Your Work 

Before your PDI is reclaimed, make sure you’ve backed up anything you want to keep: 

• Export your update sets. 
• Connect scoped apps to source control. 
• Export custom data you'll want later. 
• Save attachments and configurations. 
• Back up custom scripts and properties. 

PDIs are designed for experimentation, learning, and short-term projects. Regular backups are the best way to preserve your work. For detailed backup instructions, see How to Back Up Your Personal Developer Instance (PDI). 

Where This Is Headed 

Reclaiming inactive PDIs is just one step in a broader effort to improve PDI availability for developers. 

We’re also evaluating improvements to the underlying PDI infrastructure to provide a more reliable and performant developer experience. 

We’ll continue monitoring how well these changes improve access for developers while evaluating additional improvements. As those plans are finalized, we’ll share updates with the Community. 

Questions? Let us know in the comments below. 

[Earl Duque]

@blairedanny @chaithu1489 if you've received the email, treat the reclaim as happening, even though you've been logging in. Back up your PDIs.

Logging in regularly and getting the notice anyways is a legit report and the product team is reviewing those cases. When we understand why it still happen, we'll communicate here.

[Michael255]

This information might be incomplete.

I use my PDI almost every weekday, and I got an email saying it was being reclaimed, but it did not specify a reason. It could not be due to inactivity and the email explicitly mentioned that there was no option to extend. Now I am on a waitlist.

[Nicholasgan]

@Earl Duque I got a subsequent message around my instance being reclaimed @14:00 yesterday, except instead of it stating the 14th July like the email I received on the 11th, it now states the 15th July. Despite this new date, I expected to have lost the instance already in line with the initial date but it seems i still have it for the time being. The day is still young, so it could still happen I guess.

The new message looks to be the same format as the previous one, although the subject is different (Action Required: Your Personal Developer Instance Will Be Reclaimed vs Reminder: Your Personal Developer Instance Will Be Reclaimed Soon)

[JenniferRah]

UPDATE: I got a new PDI late yesterday. So for me, the wait list was less than 2 days.

How long is the current waitlist? It says I'm on it, but it doesn't give any indication of my placement in the line or how long I should expect to wait.

[HarshiniReddy]

@ServiceNow  Similar to others who have commented here, I also log in to my PDI very frequently—at least once a week. However, I still received an email stating that my instance is scheduled for reclamation.

You have suggested taking a backup as a solution. While we can capture some of our configurations and changes in update sets, many changes made as part of our training may be missed or may not be captured in update sets at all. In this case, what would you recommend for us? Is there any way to preserve or recover these changes?

[glideFather]

@HarshiniReddy have you logged in via /login.do?

It says an explicit login is required, clicking the "Start building" button on the Developer portal doesn't count as logging in

[HarshiniReddy]

@glideFather Thanks for the clarification! I was logging in through the Start Building button.

[SNDev0325]

I use my PDI daily and still received a reclamation notice. I log into my PDI daily, create update sets, and validate processes before performing them in my organizations dev instance.  This is not a PDI that has ever been dormant.  

Why is it being reclaimed? Instance: dev214260

Please advise. 

[Nicholasgan]

@glideFather this does not seem to be true from what I can see as I manually logged in on my PDI yesterday and it was reclaimed just a few minutes ago. It's possible that the method that is being used to determine activity is just not working correctly but I don't think they would deliberately ignore the login shortcut and only include manual authentication attempts

[SNDev0325]

I received a notice that my PDI is being reclaimed, but I use it daily. I create update sets in it almost daily - why is it being reclaimed? According to your rules of use, mine is active. Please advise.