Zendesk — Migration Reference

Zendesk — Migration Support Overview

Role in migrations

• Staff (HD): supported as both (source and target).
• Company (HD): supported as both (source and target).
• Contact (HD): supported as both (source and target).
• Ticket (HD): supported as both (source and target).
• Category (KB): supported as both (source and target).
• Folder (KB): supported as both (source and target).
• Article (KB): supported as both (source and target).
• Macro (BR): supported as both (source and target).
• Trigger (BR): supported as both (source and target).

Field-level support migrating FROM Zendesk (Ticket)

Field-level support migrating TO Zendesk (Ticket)

Field-level support migrating FROM Zendesk (Company)

Field-level support migrating TO Zendesk (Company)

Field-level support migrating FROM Zendesk (Contact)

Field-level support migrating TO Zendesk (Contact)

Field-level support migrating FROM Zendesk (Article)

Field-level support migrating TO Zendesk (Article)

Migration options available for Zendesk

• Update cross-links between articles - applies to: both (Article)
• Migrate content translations - applies to: both (Article)
• Migrate linked issues - applies to: source (Ticket)
• Migrate the newest records first - applies to: source (Ticket)
• Retain multi-company contact associations - applies to: both (Contact)
• Select records for Demo - applies to: source (Ticket), source (Article)
• Migrate records associated with tickets - applies to: source (Company), source (Contact)
• Transfer call recordings - applies to: source (Ticket)
• Inline images in tickets - applies to: source (Ticket)
• Migrate side conversations - applies to: source (Ticket)
• Skip ticket attachments - applies to: source (Ticket)
• Add a new tag to tickets - applies to: target (Ticket)

Zendesk — Setup & How-To Guide

For more information: https://help-desk-migration.com/help/zendesk-migration-guides/ , https://help-desk-migration.com/help/zendesk-data-migration-checklist/

How can I migrate the knowledge base to Zendesk Guide?

The Zendesk Knowledge Base is a separate product called Zendesk Guide. You have to manually activate, prepare, and release it before your clients can use it.

Before you start your migration, make sure you have activated the Knowledge Base (Help Center) so you can transfer your knowledge base content.

How to enable Zendesk Guide in setup mode

1. Sign in to Zendesk as an administrator.
2. Click the Zendesk Products icon in the top bar, then select Guide.
3. On the page that appears, click Build your knowledge base.

It is also possible to migrate your Knowledge Base separately as a CSV file.

If you can’t see this button in the interface, you or someone in the company have already activated the Zendesk Guide.

Remember your Knowledge Base isn’t visible to your customers until you go live with it. So, once the migration is complete, you can change or add anything before your customers can start using the help center.

How to migrate articles to a specific brand in Zendesk

When importing knowledge base data to Zendesk, you can transfer to or from a specific brand. To do this, use the URL of the particular brand within Zendesk rather than the general Zendesk account URL.

To find that URL, you need to go through the following steps:

1. Open up your Zendesk account.
2. Then click on Admin in the left sidebar.
3. Go to Admin Center.
4. Scroll down to Brand Management under Account.
5. Choose Brands and click on the target brand.
6. Copy the Subdomain address and paste it into the Migration Wizard.

How can I migrate tags to Zendesk?

Help Desk Migration migrates Tags to Zendesk by default. Note Zendesk doesn’t support spaces in Tags, so we use dashes (i.e., tag with space => tag-with-space)

Also note that if you have added custom picklist fields to your tickets, Zendesk will automatically create a tag based on the selected picklist value.

I see odd Tags in Zendesk after migration. Is it normal?

Yes, it is normal.

When migrating from other platforms, custom fields of the drop-down type will be transferred to Zendesk as mapped in Migration Wizard and added to Zendesk as tags. This is a default Zendesk behavior and cannot be changed on our side.

Where Can I Find My Migrated Tickets in Zendesk?

There are a few reasons why you may be unable to see all the imported data in your Zendesk system.

By default, Zendesk does not show all ticket statuses (e.g., Closed). To view all tickets, type * in the search bar and click the Enter key.
Zendesk automatically archives old tickets and marks them as closed. To find closed tickets, you need to create a view in Zendesk.

How to switch off “Validate user phone numbers” in Zendesk?

To turn off the “Validate user phone numbers” feature in Zendesk, follow these steps:

1. In your Zendesk account, click the Admin Center icon.
2. Navigate to End User Settings in the sidebar, click People, then select Configuration > End users.
3. Find the Validating phone numbers section. If this is turned on, phone numbers added to user profiles must follow the E.164 international numbering format. To turn off validation, simply uncheck the box next to Validating phone numbers.

Disabling this feature allows phone numbers in different formats to be saved without validation. Keep in mind, though, that this may affect any integrations or features relying on standardized phone number formats.

How to disable automatic ticket tagging on Zendesk?

Automatic ticket tagging applies to custom ticket fields such as drop-down lists, multi-select, and checkboxes. So when you create a drop-down list, multi-select, or checkbox as a custom ticket field in Zendesk, you must add a tag to each custom field value. If you forget to do this, Zendesk will automatically create corresponding tags.

If you turn on automatic ticket tagging in the Zendesk setting, the software will scan incoming ticket descriptions and add matching tags. As a rule, it searches for words longer than two characters and compares those words to the tags used in your Zendesk instance. The top three matches will be added as tags to the ticket.

To turn on/off automatic ticket tagging, you should be an administrator.

The same process happens when migrate to Zendesk. When you map custom ticket fields as a drop-down list, multi-select, or checkbox in Migration Wizard, Zendesk will automatically add all the associated Tags to all imported tickets. Note: it's a default Zendesk workflow, and our tech team can't change it.

Note: If you disable automatic ticket tagging, it only removes the capability to add tags via the ticket interface. Zendesk will still add tags to the tickets via API.

Alternative to disabling automations - select “Add a tag to migrated tickets” during data mapping in the Migration Wizard. Then, in Zendesk, update your automation rules to exclude tickets with that tag. This prevents them from being affected by existing workflows.

How to deactivate ticket form conditions in Zendesk?

When migrating to or from Zendesk, you must temporarily switch off conditions to ticket forms that require custom fields. This way, ticket custom fields migrate accurately during the Full Data Migration.

Here is how to deactivate conditions to ticket forms in Zendesk:

1. Go to Admin Center.
2. In the Admin Center, click on the Objects and Rules icon or pick it up in the sidebar.
3. Then choose Tickets Forms.
4. Move the cursor to the ticket form and click the option menu on the right.
5. Select Conditions.
6. Pick up a type of user (Agents or End users) from the Conditions for drop-down list.
7. Click on the expand icon to view the available conditions.
8. Click on a pencil icon to edit a condition.
9. Open a drop-down menu in the Required field.
10. Pick up Never for each field.
11. Click on Update to save changes.

Note: Follow these steps to deactivate each active ticket form, which includes conditions with required fields for agents and end users.

Do customers get notifications during the migration to Zendesk?

Zendesk does not send notifications to customers, only to agents. However, for extra assurance, we recommend turning off Zendesk Automation and Triggers before starting the migration.

How to calculate the number of Tickets in Zendesk?

To calculate the number of Tickets in Zendesk, follow this guide:

1. Go to Search and type *. Then hit Search for *.
2. Select Status in the Filter menu and choose all available statuses:

New, Open, Pending, Solved, Closed, Hold

How to allow display of unsafe content in Zendesk?

By default, Zendesk is configured to block unsafe HTML tags and attributes to ensure your customers can safely browse your knowledge base. This may affect how the browser renders the content, i.e., it may be displayed incorrectly or not.

You can disable this default setting by allowing the display of unsafe content:

1. In Guide, go to Settings>Guide Settings.
2. Find Security and check the Display unsafe content option.
3. Click Update.

Warning: this change allows potentially malicious code to be executed when users open an article in a browser.

Why to set up your time zone in Zendesk?

To avoid migration failures when Zendesk is connected to Migration Wizard as a Source, it's important to note that newly created accounts receive a default time zone. Therefore, before setting up your Zendesk migration, ensure that your time zone is configured appropriately.

Here’s a quick guide:

1. Go to the Admin > Go to Admin Center.
2. Go to Account > Localization > choose your time zone and click “Save.”

Tickets migration peculiarities to/from Zendesk

1. Agent Workspace must be enabled for custom statuses to be available in Mapping.
2. Tickets migrate from all brands, including deactivated ones, and the Brand field is shown on the mapping. If a brand is inactive, it isn't shown on the mapping, and its tickets migrate into whichever brand the client set as default. If a client wants to migrate only specific brands, source-side filtering is needed. To migrate into a specific brand on a Zendesk target, this can be selected on the ticket mapping (the Brand field is shown there).
3. Ticket Forms are ticket templates containing a specific set of fields, used to distinguish tickets by department or type. Ticket forms can be mapped on the mapping screen (Zendesk to Zendesk).
4. When a client maps dropdown fields belonging to non-default ticket forms, Zendesk automatically adds their values as tags to the default form (this can't be controlled on our end). However, fields belonging to ticket forms the client doesn't need can be removed from the mapping as a custom migration — dropdown values will still migrate as tags (from the ticket's default form), just fewer of them. For fully disabling this tag behavior, the client would need to check with Zendesk support.
5. Automatic tagging based on ticket content (not dropdown fields) can be excluded: https://help-desk-migration.com/help/see-new-tags-migrating-zendesk/. Note that tags from dropdown fields will still be added even with this disabled.
6. Merged and follow-up tickets — additional detail: merged tickets migrate as separate tickets, and the private message noting the merge migrates as a private message. Follow-up tickets migrate as a single ticket; the follow-up's ID can be custom-migrated into a private note or a custom field.
7. Archived tickets migrate by default. On Zendesk, "Archived" refers to tickets that have been in Closed status for 90+ days.
8. Unassigned tickets — additional detail: on Zendesk, tickets can only be in New status if they're unassigned. When an unassigned ticket is assigned to the default agent, Zendesk automatically changes its status to Open — which is why New status is removed from the migration mapping.
9. Custom ticket statuses: clients can create their own set of statuses with any names (instead of the standard New, Open, Pending, On-Hold, Solved, Closed). The mapping shows either the custom status set or the default one — never both. To get the default statuses on the mapping instead of custom ones, the client needs to deactivate custom statuses on their platform and reconnect the account. Note: tickets in a custom status don't automatically change to Closed even if an automation would normally do so — they retain their custom status but take on all characteristics of a closed ticket (can't be edited, belongs to the Closed category). More info: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832151834-Updating-and-solving-tickets#topic_ffh_rdk_dwb
10. The API method used to create tickets bypasses all triggers and notifications by design. Automations should still be disabled regardless.
11. Contact tags exist on Zendesk as well and migrate automatically wherever possible.
12. On Zendesk, a ticket can't belong to a company different from its contact's company. If, on the source, a ticket's company differs from its contact's company (or the contact has no company while the ticket does), migrating multiple companies per contact can be done as a custom migration (pulling companies from source tickets and setting them on the Zendesk contact).
13. Migrating multiple companies per contact is possible as a custom migration.
14. Suspended users — additional detail: if a user already exists on the target as suspended (Zendesk-to-Zendesk migration), they are updated to unsuspended and then mapped.
15. User Segments: these can only be migrated in a Zendesk-to-Zendesk migration, and only by migrating tags for users and organizations. The client needs to create the corresponding user segments on the target themselves (before or after migration — timing doesn't matter), and they'll then appear on the migrated contacts. When migrating articles Zendesk-to-Zendesk, user segments from both source and target are shown so they can be mapped — but they'll only function correctly if configured properly on the target. See: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408831908634-Managing-user-segments/
16. If a source agent belongs to Group A but on Zendesk belongs to Group B, the agent gets assigned to whichever group the ticket is set to, per the group mapping.
17. Tickets can be filtered by recipients (support emails), but only if those emails use a Zendesk domain.

Articles migration to/from Zendesk

1. Zendesk requires a minimum three-level KB structure: Category → Section → Article (clients may have additional sub-sections beyond this minimum).
2. Migrating between two brands within the same account is possible by connecting via separate brand-specific links. Articles migrate from only one brand, or into one specific brand, at a time — so a client with 3 KB brands who wants to migrate all of them needs 3 separate migrations.
3. If a "403 Forbidden" error occurs when trying to select a KB for migration (with Help Centers activated), it likely means the user setting up the migration lacks permission to access help_center/user_segments — they need the Help Center Managers role.
4. Inter-article links: if the client has inter-links between Zendesk articles, either (1) the paid "Update cross-links between articles" option can be selected (if available) to update cross-links automatically, or (2) inter-links will need to be updated manually on the target if that option isn't available or wasn't selected.

Migrating Translations

1. Default languages on the source and target must match.
2. The mapping shows the available locales from both source and target — the client needs to add and map the corresponding languages for correct migration. Two source locales can't be mapped to the same target locale, or the migration will fail.
3. Deleted locales on the source may still have translations accessible via the API, which can cause the migration to fail.
4. There can be confusion around Zendesk locale naming, since the mapping displays locale codes like es, es-419, fr-fr, fr, while Zendesk's interface uses different display names for the same codes (e.g., fr-fr = "French," fr = "French (France)" — the opposite of what might be expected). This can be checked on Zendesk under Knowledge Admin → Settings → Language Settings. Language codes can also be checked at: http://www.lingoes.net/en/translator/langcode.htm
5. Locales can be custom-skipped if the client doesn't want a particular language migrated.
6. If an article translation doesn't have a version in the default language, it won't migrate. Workaround: make the target's default language match that article's language (the client can set this themselves on the source, or it can be custom-set on our side without requiring the client to redo the source step), then provide us a list of the specific articles (if fewer than 20, this can be done via Demo with Custom Data).
7. By default, only one (the default) language migrates.
8. Inline images in articles migrate as inline images; attachments and tags also migrate.

Migrating Macros and Triggers

Triggers fire immediately when their condition is met (condition + action). They're mapped automatically, with all possible conditions and actions shown. If an action is skipped for a trigger, that trigger will fail.

Macros show Available For, Title, Body, and Action (the condition under which the macro is displayed) — all are exported.

Macros can be filtered by active/inactive status, category, and group; all migrate by default. Triggers can be filtered by active/inactive status and category; all migrate by default.

Limitations of Light Agents on Zendesk

In Zendesk, light agents are team members who need visibility into support conversations but don’t require full agent permissions. They’re ideal for subject matter experts, managers, or stakeholders who need to stay informed and provide internal input—without directly interacting with customers.

What light agents can do:

• View tickets—access tickets assigned to their groups or, depending on settings, all tickets in the system.
• Leave internal notes—collaborate with agents by adding private comments to tickets.
• Create tickets—open tickets on behalf of customers, though the customer won’t see the ticket until a full agent adds a public comment.
• Edit certain ticket properties—modify specific fields (depending on permissions), but not after the ticket is created.
• Use macros—apply predefined responses to add internal notes efficiently.
• View reports—access analytics, dashboards, and reports based on role-based permissions.
• View user profiles—look up customer details but with restricted editing capabilities.
• Access the Help Center—browse knowledge base articles and community forums based on assigned permissions.

What light agents can’t do:

• No public replies—they can’t respond directly to customers via email, chat, or social channels.
• No ticket assignment—they can’t be assigned to tickets or update ticket statuses.
• No workflow modifications—they can’t create or edit macros, triggers, or automations.
• No advanced user management—they can’t assume user identities, edit user profiles, or merge accounts.
• No live chat or messaging—they can’t handle real-time conversations with customers.
• No bulk ticket actions—they can’t update multiple tickets at once.
• No access to restricted reports—while they can view analytics, they can’t edit or manage reports.
• No API access—they can’t use the Mail API to automate ticket creation or notifications.

Zendesk Migration Limitations

Zendesk has specific rules and system behaviors you should consider before migrating your data. Below is a list of key limitations and how to handle them:

1. Help Desk Migration doesn’t migrate source ticket IDs, as Zendesk sets ticket IDs and cannot be overwritten. You can add custom fields to source tickets with ID’s;
2. Our service doesn’t migrate password information. Your end-users will have to reset their passwords after the migration is completed.
3. When migrating to Zendesk, your suspended Contacts will change their status to unsuspended; suspended contacts can't be the requesters in Zendesk.
4. You cannot migrate tickets without contacts, organizations, and agents. These fields should be filled in.
5. After 28 days, tickets marked as 'Solved' will automatically get updated to 'Closed'. And after 120 days of being 'Closed', tickets are automatically archived. It happens because of specific automation settings. You can reduce the number of days until they become 'Closed', but you can't expect tickets to stay 'Solved' until you manually close them.
6. Zendesk does not show all ticket statuses in the main menu by default. To view all tickets, type * in the search bar and press the Enter key. This is the only way you can locate archived tickets.
7. The tickets get relevant tags assigned automatically by Zendesk based on the custom field options.
8. Only default language migrates by default for the Zendesk Guide. But, if your Source platform supports a multi-lingual Help Center, you can choose an automated option to migrate the content translations. In this case, ensure that your Source platform and Zendesk Guide support the same languages.
9. The agent roles you see on Zendesk depend on your subscription plan. For example, an administrator role defines everything in your account. A light agent role can leave private comments on tickets, but cannot be a closed ticket owner, etc. If you are an Enterprise plan user, ensure all of your agents receive the Staff role to solve the tickets.
10. Each subscription plan has a limited amount of agents. Consider upgrading if you want to preserve the same number of agents you had on your source help desk. If you don't migrate specific agents to Zendesk, contact our team to reassign their tickets.
11. Tickets without the agent get assigned to a default agent in Zendesk. Pick up a default agent while mapping agent profiles.
12. You cannot store Knowledge Base Articles in categories, only in folders. If you had no folders on the source help desk, the articles would migrate to a default folder created automatically by the migration tool. Also, make sure that Zendesk Guide is activated.
13. If you want to migrate articles to a particular brand, put its link in the URL field while connecting your Zendesk account.
14. By default, Zendesk is configured to block unsafe HTML tags and attributes, to ensure that your customers can safely browse your knowledge base. For example, videos migrated as a part of Knowledge Base articles are referred to as unsafe content. To display them, go to Settings, Guide Settings, find Security, and check the Display unsafe content option.
15. There are several types of tickets which migrate differently. For instance, merged tickets migrate as separate ones with private messages. Follow-ups transfer as one ticket. In the custom migration, you can transfer follow-ups that contain ID into a custom field or private note.
16. The order of tickets during migration depends on your source help desk API. It controls the process and determines whether new or old tickets get transferred first. Our service migrates the users and then tickets, to maintain the user-ticket relation.
17. Set up mandatory and regex fields after the data migration. Regex fields in Zendesk only support such formats as yyyy-mm-dd date, URL validation, five-digit zip codes, and social security number in a pattern of 3-2-4 and each separated by a dash.
18. The API always uses UTC, so Zendesk ticket migrations can show up to a 1-hour time difference even after the client adjusts their timezone.
19. Solved tickets automatically become Closed after 28 days (per Zendesk's own automation: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012480467-Why-do-solved-tickets-change-to-a-closed-status). Because of this, even with the correct status mapped, a ticket may show as Solved (or Closed, depending on its close date) right after migration — the default automation will close it within a few days regardless.
20. If a customer can’t see all migrated tickets but is checking via Views rather than search, that's likely the cause, since Views don't show Closed tickets by default: https://help-desk-migration.com/help/can-find-migrated-tickets-zendesk/ and https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203657756-About-ticket-archiving.
21. Private comment quirk: if the person replying to a ticket notification isn't currently the requester or CC (e.g., the notification was forwarded to someone else who then replies), the reply becomes a private comment. In a Zendesk-to-Zendesk migration, if a private note's author on the source is not an agent, requester, or CC, that private note gets automatically assigned to the default agent, since only agents (not requesters/CC) can leave private notes on Zendesk. There's no workaround — this is expected behavior.
22. If a client sees "Looks like this field value is invalid or incorrect" when connecting Zendesk with a correct URL, and the logs show "Couldn't authenticate you," a possible fix is whitelisting our IP (may be related to the client's IP restriction settings).
23. If a client's ticket count looks wrong in the tool despite having tickets, this can be caused by a broken Zendesk search index — ask Zendesk to reindex the client's account.
24. Company search by creation date not working can be fixed by resetting the timezone, after which filtering works correctly