Preview predicted changes

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Preview Predicted Changes

    The Preview Predicted Changes feature in ServiceNow's Zurich release enables customers to anticipate and review the records that will change during an upgrade. This helps identify which records will be inserted, updated, skipped, or reverted, allowing for better preparation and management of customization conflicts before the actual upgrade process.

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    Key Features

    • Predicted Change Types: Records are categorized by predicted actions such as Insert, Update, Skip (to preserve customizations), Skip requiring manual merge, Skip due to prior application, or Revert to base version.
    • Customization Skip Prediction: The system predicts records skipped during upgrade to avoid overwriting customizations, highlighting potential conflict areas in advance.
    • Conflict Prioritization: Skipped records are assigned a priority from 1 (highest) to 5 (lowest) based on file importance, helping customers focus on the most critical conflicts first. For example, UI pages and macros have highest priority, while choice sets and form sections have lower priority.
    • Resolution Status Tracking: Customers can track the review status of conflicts with labels such as Not Reviewed, Reviewed, Review Not Needed, Reviewed and Retained (keep customization), or Reviewed and Reverted (discard customization).
    • Detailed Preview Access: Clicking "View preview details" opens the Upgrade Preview form, showing related lists with file names, predicted dispositions, priority, resolution status, associated plugins, and related records.

    Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Gain visibility into what changes the upgrade will bring and which customizations may be impacted.
    • Proactively address predicted skipped records to reduce manual intervention and upgrade risks.
    • Prioritize resolving conflicts based on business impact using the priority system.
    • Make informed decisions on retaining or reverting customizations before upgrade execution.
    • Improve upgrade planning and reduce downtime by managing changes in advance.

    Use the previewed changes table to view the list of total records that are predicted to change when the upgrade occurs.

    Preview skipped list prediction

    The Total record changes also includes records that are predicted to be skipped due to various reasons. The most common reason is due to customization. The reason an upgrade skips customizations is to avoid overwriting your customizations. Upgrade Preview attempts to predict which records will be skipped when the actual upgrade occurs. It predicts skips due to customizations, and some of the other more complex scenarios as well. It is possible to use Upgrade Preview to address these predicted customization skips before the upgrade occurs, which can prevent that skip from happening.

    Click View preview details link on the Previewing version card. The Upgrade Preview form appears along with the following related lists details.

    Table 1. Related lists details
    Field Description
    File name Record that has been flagged for reconciliation.
    Predicted Disposition Action predicted to be performed on this file during the selected upgrade:
    • Predicted Insert: The system is predicted to insert a new record.
    • Predicted Update: The system is predicted to update this record.
    • Reverted: This record was reverted to the base version, and won’t be skipped on the next upgrade.
    • Predicted Skip: The system won't change this record in order to preserve customizations.
    • Predicted Skip (Manual Merge): The system won't change this record because updating it requires manual intervention.
    • Predicted Skip (Apply Once): The system is predicted to skip this record because it had already applied an update from an xml file in the apply once folder.
    Priority Priority that has been assigned to resolve the conflict. Values range from one to five, with one representing the highest priority.
    Note:
    ServiceNow prioritizes the skipped records based on the importance of the file types. The prioritization is done as follows:
    • Priority 1 (highest priority): UI pages, UI macros, and more
    • Priority 2: Business Rules, Security ACLs, and more
    • Priority 3: Reports and more
    • Priority 4: Form Sections, Choice Sets, and more
    • Priority 5 (lowest priority): other
    Resolution Ways to resolve a conflict.
    • Not reviewed: Conflicted files that have not been reviewed yet
    • Reviewed: Reviewed but no action has been taken yet
    • Review not needed: Review of the skipped files are not required
    • Reviewed and Retained: Left customizations in place without update from upgrade
    • Reviewed and Reverted: Customizations discarded, record updated according to the upgrade version
    Plugin Plugin containing the record
    Related record Record that the changelist entry applies to