How do I delete a case in Salesforce?

Open the case and click Delete in the record header, or in the dropdown at the end of the buttons, then confirm. You need the Delete permission on Cases and full access to that case, such as being its owner.

Why can't I delete a case in Salesforce?

Either your profile and permission sets don't give you Delete on Cases, or you don't have full access to that particular case. Read/Write sharing is not enough: you must own the case, be above the owner in the role hierarchy, or have Modify All on Cases. A trigger or flow can also block the delete with an error.

How do I delete multiple cases at once?

Go to Setup, search for Mass Delete Records and choose Mass Delete Cases. Enter criteria, click Search, select the cases and click Delete. It needs the Modify All Data permission and handles up to 250 cases per run; use Data Loader for more.

Does deleting a parent case delete its child cases?

No. In my test the child case stayed and only its Parent Case field was cleared. The case comments, activities and contact roles of the deleted case are deleted with it.

Can I recover a deleted case in Salesforce?

Yes, for 15 days. Open Recycle Bin from the App Launcher, select the case and click Restore, unless it was deleted with the Permanently delete or Hard Delete option.

How to Delete a Case in Salesforce: Single, Mass & Restore

To delete a case in Salesforce, open the case and click Delete in the header (or in the action menu), then confirm. To delete many cases at once, use Setup → Mass Delete Records → Mass Delete Cases; deleted cases go to the Recycle Bin, where you can restore them for 15 days.

I tested every method below in a Salesforce Developer Edition org on test cases I created for the purpose: deleting one case in Lightning, mass deleting cases, deleting with the Salesforce CLI, and checking what happens to child cases and case comments. You will also find why the Delete button is sometimes missing and how to get a deleted case back.

This Tutorial Covers:

Before You Delete: Close or Merge Instead?

Most support teams never delete real cases; they close them, so the history, reports and SLA metrics stay intact. Deleting is right for test data, spam from Email-to-Case or Web-to-Case, and true duplicates. For duplicates, merging cases is usually better, because it keeps the emails and comments from both cases on the surviving one.

How to Delete a Single Case in Lightning

Open the case record.
Click Delete in the record header. If you don’t see it, open the dropdown arrow at the end of the buttons.
Salesforce asks “Are you sure you want to delete this case?”. Click Delete.