Activation Studio – MC Client Secret Rotation

Summary
From 30 September 2026, Salesforce requires the client secret of every installed package in Marketing Cloud to be rotated every 180 days. This applies to the installed packages Activation Studio uses. Please rotate the Activation Studio client secrets and share the new ones with Activation Studio before 30 September 2026. There is no downtime: your current secrets keep working until you activate the new ones.

Why this matters
Client secrets authenticate the API calls between Marketing Cloud and connected applications such as Activation Studio. Rotating them regularly limits the damage if a secret is ever exposed. Secrets that are not rotated in time will be flagged by Salesforce and may be disabled after the deadline, which would stop Activation Studio from communicating with your Marketing Cloud account. Salesforce describes the policy here: Marketing Cloud Client Secret Expiration.

Before you start
You need a Marketing Cloud user with access to Setup and the Installed Packages section. Rotating a secret takes about ten minutes per package.

Steps to take

Step 1 – Find the Activation Studio packages

In Marketing Cloud go to Setup > Platform Tools > Apps > Installed Packages. You will find at least two Activation Studio packages: one for the server application and one for the web application. If you use the custom Sales/Service Cloud connector there is a third package for that integration.

Step 2 – Generate new client secrets in Marketing Cloud

Open each Activation Studio package and generate a new client secret. Salesforce describes the exact steps here: How to rotate client secrets. Keep the new secrets somewhere safe for the next step; do not send them by email or chat.

Step 3 – Share the new secrets with Activation Studio

For the server and web packages, the new secrets must be entered in Activation Studio. Open Activation Studio and go to Settings. You will see a notice about client secret rotation:

If you click on settings you will see the following message:

From there you can create a secure link through which you share the new client secrets with Activation Studio. The link walks you through the remaining steps. Your existing secrets keep working until you activate the new ones, so you can do this at any moment without interrupting running activations.

Step 4 – Check the result

Once the new secrets are saved, the Settings page shows how long they are valid and how many days remain until the next rotation. We recommend putting a reminder in your calendar around 30 days before that date.

Need help?
If you run into any issues updating your credentials, reach out to your main contact, which should be on of these:

Sander Hof – sander@harvestdigital.nl
Bram Honingh – bram.honingh@harvestdigital.nl
Nick Rottink – nick.rottink@harvestdigital.nl