What is the difference between a solved ticket and a closed ticket?

What are differences between solved and closed tickets?

Agents can set tickets to Solved after they resolve a customer’s issue or complete their work on the ticket. After a predefined period without any updates, the system moves the ticket to Closed status before it archives the ticket later on.

The content below describes the main differences between solved and closed tickets.

Automatic status changes

For Solved tickets: The ticket moves to Closed after it remains solved for 28 days.

For Closed tickets: The ticket moves to Archived after it remains closed for 120 days.

Can users reopen the ticket?

For Solved tickets: Yes, if an end user or customer replies, a solved ticket reopens or updates.

For Closed tickets: No, even when a user replies, a closed ticket remains closed and the system creates a follow-up ticket.

Can agents update the ticket?

For Solved tickets: Yes, agents can update solved tickets.

For Closed tickets: No, only admins can modify closed tickets when they update ticket tags, the subject, the priority field, and a subset of custom fields.

Note: You must activate the Zendesk Agent Workspace before an admin can modify closed tickets. If you don't, you can edit closed ticket fields through the API only.

Can agents directly change tickets to this status?

For Solved tickets: Yes, agents can set tickets to Solved, but they can't change closed tickets.

For Closed tickets: No, a trigger or automation closes tickets, but agents can't manually change the status of a ticket to Closed.

By default, the system contains an automation called Close ticket 4 days after status is set to solved that gives customers four days to respond to a solved ticket before the system moves the ticket to the closed status. The best practice is to close a ticket after three to five days. However, you can adjust this automation to run anywhere between one hour and 28 days.

In accounts with custom ticket statuses activated, Closed tickets display a custom or default Solved status.

For more information on the other ticket statuses, see:

About open vs. pending and on-hold tickets

Modify closed tickets