How to Merge Tickets in Zendesk
How to merge tickets in Zendesk is four clicks and one caveat that catches people out: the merge is permanent.
How to merge tickets in Zendesk, step by step
Work from the ticket you want to close, not the one you want to keep. Zendesk merges the ticket you are viewing into the one you name.
Open the ticket you want to close
This is the duplicate. Everything in it moves to the ticket you're about to name, and this one ends up closed.
Ticket options, then Merge into another ticket
The Ticket options menu sits in the upper right of the ticket. Choose Merge into another ticket.
Enter the ticket number and confirm
Type the ID of the ticket you're keeping, click Merge, review the comment Zendesk is about to add, then click Confirm and merge.
What actually happens when you merge
closed_by_merge, which is genuinely useful: build a view on it and you can see how much merging your team is doing.Tickets Zendesk will refuse to merge
| Situation | Can you merge? | What to do instead |
|---|---|---|
| Ticket is Solved or Closed | No, tickets must be less than Solved | Reopen the ticket first, then merge |
| Ticket is shared with another Zendesk instance | No | Unshare it, then merge |
| Different requesters | Yes, but check first | Confirm they're the same human before merging, since the requester doesn't change |
| Custom agent role on Enterprise | Only if the role grants merge permission | An admin adds the merge permission to the role |
| More than two tickets | Yes, one at a time | Merge each duplicate into the survivor in turn |
The part that's not in the documentation
Merging is easy. Noticing is not.
To merge a duplicate an agent has to know the other ticket exists. That ticket might be in a different view, assigned to someone on another shift, worded nothing like the one in front of them, and already answered. By the time somebody spots the pair, both customers have had a reply and the merge no longer saves anyone anything.
That's why teams with a merge button still have a duplicate problem, and why merging Zendesk tickets automatically is a different job from merging them manually.
Frequently asked questions
How do you merge tickets in Zendesk?
Open the ticket you want to close, choose the requester's ticket list or use the merge option in the ticket actions menu, pick the ticket to merge into, and confirm. The closed ticket's comments move across as a note on the survivor.
Can you unmerge tickets in Zendesk?
No. Zendesk merges are permanent. The closest thing to a fix is to open a new ticket for the content that should not have been merged. See unmerging in Zendesk.
Can I merge more than two tickets at once?
Not in a single action. Merge each duplicate into the surviving ticket one at a time. If this is a regular chore, that's a sign the duplicates should be caught automatically.
What happens to the requester and CCs?
The surviving ticket keeps its own requester. The requester of the closed ticket isn't added automatically, so if two different people reported the same issue, add the second one as a CC yourself.
Does merging affect my reporting?
Yes, in a good way. The closed duplicate is tagged closed_by_merge, so you can exclude merged tickets from volume and handle-time reporting and finally see real numbers.
Can Zendesk merge tickets automatically?
Zendesk offers merging suggestions on some plans, which flag likely duplicates for an agent to confirm. Fully automatic merging, with your own rules, needs a tool like Ticket Merger.
Never hunt for a Zendesk duplicate again
Ticket Merger watches your Zendesk queue and merges the duplicates through the same native merge you just read about, before an agent opens either one.
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