How to troubleshoot issues with tickets

<h2 id="h_01H8XS3WSEC39VHNHZS10FETKA">Question</h2><p>How can I fix general issues with my tickets at Zendesk?</p><h2 id="h_01H8XS3WSF6Z70HCN51GTN0506">Answer</h2><p>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.</p><p>Click each section below:</p><div style="margin-bottom: 20px; text-align: right;">
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</script><div class="accordion"><h3 id="h_01HNAXZXMH85N6TNKTWT148GWG">Why is my ticket marked as Open?</h3></div><div class="panel">
<p>The <strong>New</strong> status indicates that no action was taken on a ticket. Once the status of a ticket changes from <strong>New</strong>, it can never be set back to <strong>New</strong>.</p>
<p>The status of a ticket can change to <strong>Open</strong> if:</p>
<ul>
<li data-list-item-id="e9d1e0692368fd9ed2373044e895f8545">An agent manually changed the status of the ticket to <strong>Open</strong>.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="ee65dbfaefec05b5401b478319c464304">A ticket was assigned to an agent. When a new ticket is assigned to an agent, the ticket status automatically changes to <strong>Open</strong>.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="ef986fab7e27b8aa5d63d9700c7082421">If your account only has one agent, all tickets are automatically assigned to that agent, and the status of the ticket changes to <strong>Open</strong>.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e876253f2b33ff246c50a3a8f35963020">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 <strong>Open</strong>.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e0bfa247fcf91115c8f2e2e8eb81c3f74">When an end user replies to a <strong>Pending</strong>, <strong>Solved</strong>, or <strong>On-hold</strong> ticket, the ticket status changes to <strong>Open</strong>.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e79f8f07f5e8f906b56ce9d12dd624654">An <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832701850-About-automations-and-how-they-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">automation</a> or a <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408822236058-About-triggers-and-how-they-work" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">trigger</a> can change the status of the ticket to <strong>Open</strong>. To find out if a business rule acts on the group of the ticket, see the article: <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829602970-Viewing-all-events-for-ticket-updates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Viewing all events of a ticket</a>.</li>
</ul>
<p>For more information, see the article: <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408894213018-About-system-ticket-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">About the system ticket rules</a>.</p>
</div><div class="accordion"><h3 id="h_01M1KXYZBDQCW8S1BMBEV1K0S6">Why was my ticket auto-closed without an assignee and with no email or user information?</h3></div><div class="panel">
<p>If Support tickets are automatically closed with no assignee, no email or user information, and the <strong>Requester</strong> field shows: <strong>End User</strong>, follow these steps to pinpoint the root cause:</p>
<ol>
<li data-list-item-id="e4c83009ca7ba2371c1d9b765ae1841dc">Review the <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829602970-Viewing-all-events-for-ticket-updates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ticket events</a> to identify the root cause at the time of the ticket status change</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e3da5b1d101b1089b59d3f216b075fd9a">You might identify that the Classic Web Widget and its autoreply or article-recommendation workflow is the cause.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e7f3ece9cdeb0fb3e735996e05494c94b">When an end user views an article preview or selects <strong>Yes, problem solved</strong>, Zendesk creates an automated-resolution tracking ticket with requester <strong>End user</strong>, no assignee, and the <code>ai_agent_automated_resolution</code> tag.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="edaf1065be0a87ef8a23095c0f10c51b9">You can turn off <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408843471642-Enabling-article-recommendations-in-Web-Widget-Classic" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">article recommendations</a>, as a workaround.</li>
</ol>
</div><div class="accordion"><h3 id="h_01HNAY416W4PD9330GSEK3WGPB">Why did the ticket status change or why was my ticket auto-closed or solved?</h3></div><div class="panel">
<p>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:</p>
<ol>
<li data-list-item-id="e42d7b18715ddb680d61002cacb445091">An agent manually changed the status of the ticket, open the <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829602970-Viewing-all-events-of-a-ticket" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ticket events</a> and verify what happened.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e70026abf72c8f645cb574fbf5ecccb4f">A business rule, for example an automation or a trigger, might have changed the status of the ticket. To find out, open the <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829602970-Viewing-all-events-of-a-ticket" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ticket events</a> and look for either an automation or trigger at the time of the change. You may need to adjust or deactivate the automation or trigger that changed the status however, verify potential impact on other tickets with your <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6489966715546-How-can-I-locate-my-admin" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">admin</a> first</li>
<li data-list-item-id="ed6fbd5b17ddaae29e94c28c0b95ca621">Finally, tickets close automatically 28 days after they're set to <strong>Solved</strong>, regardless of any triggers or automations.</li>
</ol>
<p>For more information, see the article: <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408894213018-About-system-ticket-rules" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">About the system ticket rules</a>.</p>
</div><div class="accordion"><h3 id="h_01HNAYCW67HWA13XQ6Q0KTT6QP">Why didn’t I receive a ticket notification?</h3></div><div class="panel">
<p>Agents can receive notifications in the Agent Workspace when activity occurs on tickets. Notifications can be sent for the following activities:</p>
<ul>
<li data-list-item-id="e56fd11f46c7592771ed8cb13c9d8db35">Assignments and replies on email tickets</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e5e8aed494819dd704bd41617d160cc06">@mentions on email tickets</li>
<li data-list-item-id="ead9307f384eb9e479e241ae94dd26284">Reopened chat or messaging tickets, when the status changes from <strong>Solved</strong> to <strong>Open</strong>
</li>
</ul>
<p>To configure ticket notifications, go to <strong>Admin center</strong> &gt; <strong>Workspaces</strong> &gt; <strong>Notifications</strong>. You can select the channel types and activities for which you want to receive notifications.</p>
<p>If your administrator has enabled agent notification settings, each agent and admin manages their own notification preferences. Admins cannot configure notification settings for other agents or admins.</p>
<p>You can also enable persistent notifications. These notifications remain visible until you acknowledge them by clicking the notification. Clicking a persistent notification opens the associated ticket in a ticket tab.</p>
<p>For more information, see this article: <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/11069213656090-Announcing-messaging-notification-improvements-in-the-Agent-Workspace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Announcing messaging notification improvements in the Agent Workspace</a></p>
</div><div class="accordion"><h3 id="h_01M0G9BNR4311KG7A4VF124BJM">Why does replying to a ticket create a new one?</h3></div><div class="panel">
<p>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:</p>
<ol>
<li data-list-item-id="e24516186053d75189a8b952e528962a0">A user sends a message to Support.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="ee51d91c48234475ef966d4fa1c287011">Zendesk searches for the <code>message-ID</code> of the email.<ul>
<li data-list-item-id="eda3ed84d4f0fb39069316c3803ba3258">If the message-ID matches the <code>message-ID</code> associated with an existing ticket, the email threads to that parent ticket.</li>
<li data-list-item-id="e1eb9d28b0478bf9394d77af426999dfa">If the <code>message-ID</code> doesn't match any <code>message-ID</code> associated with an existing ticket, the email creates a new ticket.</li>
</ul>
</li>
</ol>
<p>View the <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408832876442-Viewing-the-original-email-including-full-HTML" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">original email</a> to confirm if the email Message-IDs match up. For more information, see the article: <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821051034-How-can-I-troubleshoot-threading-issues-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why do emails thread to the wrong ticket?</a></p>
<p>Additionally, if the user replies to a ticket with a <strong>Closed</strong> status, their reply creates a follow-up ticket. For other situations in which replies to a ticket create new tickets, see the article: <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408882816026-Why-do-replies-to-email-target-notifications-create-a-new-ticket-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why do replies to email-target notifications create a new ticket?</a></p>
</div><div class="accordion"><h3 id="h_01HNAYDH73PT3JS05598MDQ5FG">Who modified my ticket?</h3></div><div class="panel">
<p>See all the updates and notifications that happened on a ticket if you check the <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408829602970-Viewing-all-events-of-a-ticket" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ticket events</a>. Whenever you are unsure why a property of your ticket changed, check the events of that same ticket as explained in the video below.</p>
<p><iframe src="//www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/g9F-CzsyDnA" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></p>
<p>The events of the ticket can also be used to troubleshoot business rules. For more information, see the article: <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408830993818-How-to-troubleshoot-your-triggers" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How to troubleshoot your triggers</a>.</p>
</div><div class="accordion"><h3 id="h_01HNAYK4V1E327YJXA36DJ5B3E">Can I customize a ticket status?</h3></div><div class="panel">
<p>If you use the Zendesk <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408821259930-About-the-Zendesk-Agent-Workspace" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Agent Workspace</a>, create a new <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575841306">custom ticket status</a> that corresponds to one of the ticket status categories (<strong>New, Open, Pending, On-hold, Solved</strong>). For more information, see the articles:</p>
<ul>
<li data-list-item-id="eec76a9f9b2b0a255f8d0ca4900f02071"><a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408883525786-Can-I-add-custom-ticket-statuses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Can I add custom ticket statuses?</a></li>
<li data-list-item-id="e92bb50a5a7eddec8c66167af944561ea"><a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4412575861018-Creating-custom-ticket-statuses" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Creating custom ticket statuses</a></li>
</ul>
<p>The priority ticket field and its values cannot be edited or modified. For a workaround, follow the article: <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408825637018-Can-I-edit-the-priority-field-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Can I edit the priority field?</a></p>
<p>For more information, see this article: <a href="https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4603876353818-Why-can-t-I-access-this-ticket-" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Why can't I access this ticket?</a></p>
</div>