Moving from Zendesk? You can bring your ticket history across, with each customer's conversations, so your team has the full background from day one. The import copies tickets; it doesn't change anything in Zendesk.
Before you start
You need three things from Zendesk:
- Your subdomain: the
acmeinacme.zendesk.com. - The account email of a Zendesk admin.
- A Zendesk API token. Create one in Zendesk under Admin Center → Apps and integrations → APIs → Zendesk API.
You also need at least one help desk in IntelliDesk to import into.
Step 1: Connect Zendesk
- Go to Settings → Integrations.
- On the Zendesk card, enter the Subdomain, Account email and API token. You can paste the full address (
https://acme.zendesk.com) as the subdomain; IntelliDesk trims it. - Click Connect Zendesk. The card changes to Connected.
The API token is stored encrypted. Disconnect removes the saved credentials; tickets you've already imported stay. To change the credentials, disconnect and connect again.
Step 2: Choose tickets
Click Import Tickets. IntelliDesk loads your Zendesk tickets 100 at a time, all ticked. Click Load more to fetch the next 100. Untick anything you don't want, or use Select all.
Each ticket shows its Zendesk status, requester and date. Tickets you've imported before are labelled Already imported.
Step 3: Choose the help desk and import
- Click Choose Destination and pick the help desk the tickets should go to. Everything in one run goes to the same desk; run the import again for other desks.
- Click Review Import, check the summary, and click Import N Tickets.
- Keep the window open until it finishes. It then shows how many were imported and skipped, and any errors, with Go to Inbox.
Each ticket is fetched from Zendesk one by one, so a large selection takes a while. For a big history, import in several smaller runs; tickets already imported are skipped, so it's safe to repeat.
What comes across
| From Zendesk | In IntelliDesk |
|---|---|
| Ticket subject and created date | Kept as they were |
| Requester | A contact, matched by email address, or created if new. If the contact already belongs to a company, the ticket is linked to it. |
| Public comments | Messages in the conversation, with their original dates. The requester's comments show as the customer; everyone else's as an agent reply under the Zendesk author's name. |
| Private comments | Internal notes |
| Status | new and open → Open; pending → Pending; hold → On hold; solved and closed → Closed |
| Priority | low, normal, high, urgent → the same; no priority → Normal |
| Tags | Listed in an internal note on the ticket ("Original tags: …"), not added as IntelliDesk tags |
| Attachments | Listed at the end of the message with the file name and a link to the file in Zendesk. The files themselves aren't copied. |
Every imported ticket gets a new IntelliDesk number (HD-…) and an internal note recording where it came from: "Imported from Zendesk ticket #1234."
What doesn't come across
- Assignees, groups and Zendesk users. Imported tickets are unassigned; agent replies keep the author's name as text only.
- Custom fields, macros, views, triggers and your Zendesk help centre.
- The attachment files (see above). Download any you need to keep before you close your Zendesk account, because the links point to Zendesk.
Imports are quiet on purpose
Imported tickets don't set anything off: no triggers, automations, webhooks, SLA timers or auto-reply emails. Your customers aren't emailed about years-old tickets, and your SLA reports aren't filled with breaches from before you switched.
Worth knowing
- A requester with no email address in Zendesk gets a placeholder address (ending @imported.invalid), and the ticket's note says so. Update the contact if you know their real address.
- If a Zendesk status isn't recognised, the ticket is imported as Open and the note says so, so you can review it.
If something goes wrong
| Message | Fix |
|---|---|
| Zendesk credentials are invalid or expired. Please reconfigure. | Check the subdomain, email and token. Disconnect, create a new token in Zendesk and connect again. |
| Zendesk API rate limit exceeded. Please wait a moment and retry. | Zendesk is limiting requests. Wait a minute, then import again; imported tickets are skipped. |
| No tickets found in Zendesk. | The account has no tickets the token can see. Check you connected the right subdomain. |
| Errors listed per ticket (Ticket 1234: …) | Those tickets were skipped. Run the import again to retry them. |
Related: Importing cards from Trello · Contacts and companies · Understanding ticket statuses