How to troubleshoot issues with tickets

Question How can I fix general issues with my tickets at Zendesk? Answer Tickets keep track of the conversations between your customers and your agents until the issue is solved. This article provides a guide for identifying and resolving the most frequently encountered issues when working with tickets. Click each section below:
Why is my ticket marked as Open?
Why did the ticket status change?
Why does replying to a ticket create a new one?
Who modified my ticket?
Can I customize a ticket status?
Why is my ticket marked as Open? The New status indicates that no action was taken on a ticket. Once the status of a ticket changes from New, it can never be set back to New. The status of a ticket can change to Open if:
An agent manually changed the status of the ticket to Open.
A ticket was assigned to an agent. When a new ticket is assigned to an agent, the ticket status automatically changes to Open.
If your account only has one agent, all tickets are automatically assigned to that agent, and the status of the ticket changes to Open.
When a ticket is assigned to a group with one member, that agent becomes the ticket's assignee, and the status of the ticket changes to Open.
When an end user replies to a Pending, Solved, or On-hold ticket, the ticket status changes to Open.
An automation or a trigger can change the status of the ticket to Open. To find out if a business rule acts on the group of the ticket, see the article: Viewing all events of a ticket.
For more information, see the article: About the system ticket rules. Why did the ticket status change? The status of a ticket can change for multiple reasons. Besides the reasons described in the previous section, there are other possible causes for a change in ticket status.
An agent manually changed the status of the ticket.
A business rule changed the status of the ticket. To find out if a business rule acts on the group of the ticket, see the article: Viewing all events of a ticket.
Tickets close automatically 28 days after they're set to solved, regardless of any triggers or automations.
For more information, see the article: About the system ticket rules. Why does replying to a ticket create a new one? When Zendesk receives a new email, it checks the message to determine if the email should be added as an update to an existing ticket, or if it should create a new one. This is what happens:
A user sends a message to Support.
Zendesk searches for the message-ID of the email.
If the message-ID matches the message-ID associated with an existing ticket, the email threads to that parent ticket.
If the message-ID doesn't match any message-ID associated with an existing ticket, the email creates a new ticket.


View the original email to confirm if the email Message-IDs match up. For more information, see the article: Why do emails thread to the wrong ticket? Additionally, if the user replies to a ticket with a Closed status, their reply creates a follow-up ticket. For other situations in which replies to a ticket create new tickets, see the article: Why do replies to email-target notifications create a new ticket? Who modified my ticket? See all the updates and notifications that happened on a ticket if you check the ticket events. Whenever you are unsure why a property of your ticket changed, check the events of that same ticket as explained in the video below. The events of the ticket can also be used to troubleshoot business rules. For more information, see the article: How to troubleshoot your triggers. Can I customize a ticket status? If you use the Zendesk Agent Workspace, create a new custom ticket status that corresponds to one of the ticket status categories (New, Open, Pending, On-hold, Solved). For more information, see the articles:
Can I add custom ticket statuses?
Creating custom ticket statuses
The priority ticket field and its values cannot be edited or modified. For a workaround, follow the article: Can I edit the priority field? For more information, see this article: Why can't I access this ticket?
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What is a ticket? Why do I use tickets? What do tickets track?
Tickets keep track of the conversations between your customers or end users and your agents or support persons until your team solves the issue.

Can I set a ticket status back to "New"? Can you change a ticket progress back to "New"? Can an agent reset a state to "New"?
No. Once the status or progress of a ticket changes from New, you can never set it back to New. The New status indicates that your team took no action on a ticket.

Why is my ticket marked as "Open"? Why did my ticket progress change to "Open"? What causes a ticket state to change to "Open"?
A ticket status or progress changes to Open for several reasons. An agent or support person manually changes the status to Open, or the system assigns a ticket to an agent. When the system assigns a new ticket to an agent, the ticket status automatically changes to Open. If your account contains only one agent, the system automatically assigns all tickets to that agent and changes the status to Open. When a team assigns a ticket to a group or department with one member, that agent becomes the ticket assignee, and the status changes to Open. Additionally, the status changes to Open when an end user or customer replies to a Pending, Solved, or On-hold ticket, or when an automation or time-based rule or a trigger or auto-reply changes the status.

When do tickets close automatically? What is the hard limit for a "Solved" ticket to close? How long does a ticket stay "Solved" before it closes?
Tickets close automatically 28 days after your team sets them to Solved. This hard limit applies regardless of any triggers or auto-replies, or automations or time-based rules.

Why does a reply to a ticket create a new one? Why do replies create new tickets? How does the ticketing system route incoming emails?
When the help desk or ticketing system receives a new email, it checks the message to determine if the email adds as an update to an existing ticket, or if it creates a new one. Follow these steps to see how the system handles messages:

A user or customer sends a message to Support.
The system searches for the message-ID of the email.

If the message-ID matches the message-ID associated with an existing ticket, the email threads to that parent ticket. If the message-ID does not match any message-ID associated with an existing ticket, the email creates a new ticket. Additionally, if the user replies to a ticket with a Closed status, their reply creates a follow-up ticket.

Who modified my ticket? How do I see who updated my ticket? Where can I view ticket updates and notifications?
You see all the updates and notifications that happened on a ticket when you check the ticket events. Whenever you are unsure why a property of your ticket changed, check the events of that same ticket. You can also use the events of the ticket to troubleshoot business rules.

Can I customize a ticket status? Can I add a custom ticket progress? Can you create unique states in the inbox or dashboard?
Yes. If you use the Agent Workspace or inbox, you can create a new custom ticket status. This custom status must correspond to one of the ticket status categories: New, Open, Pending, On-hold, or Solved.

Can I edit the priority field? Can I modify priority values? What are the limitations of the priority ticket field?
No. You cannot edit or modify the priority ticket field and its values.

