Using Workbench to Retrieve Metadata

This article covers list of steps you can follow to retrieve metadata from salesforce using workbench.

1. First create package.xml file. Here is the sample to retrieve all layouts in the org.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Package xmlns="http://soap.sforce.com/2006/04/metadata">
 <types>
        <members>*</members>
        <name>Layout</name>
</types>
<version>39.0</version>
</Package>

2. Now go to workbench (Workbench) and login to your sandbox, production or dev org. for Developer org choose Production as environment.

3. After you login, you will see following screen. Click on Migration dropdown and select Retrieve as option. 

4. You will see below screen. Choose package.xml file created in step1 in choose file option. And select single package checkbox. Click Next - 

5. You will see below confirmation screen, Click on Retrieve to start the retrieval process. 

6. Above process runs for some time based on the amount of metadata you have. Once completed, you will see below screen. You can download the file by clicking Download zip file.