Announcing minor changes to downgrading an agent

Announced on
Rollout starts
Rollout ends


April 30, 2026
April 30, 2026
May 7, 2026


This announcement includes the following sections:
What is changing?
Why is Zendesk making this change?
What do I need to do?
What is changing? Previously, we blocked changing an agent’s role to light agent or contributor if they had any tickets in a state less than closed. While we allowed changing an agent with the Edit ticket properties permission to a role without the Edit ticket properties permission, we did not reassign or unassign any of their working tickets. Now, for all scenarios listed above, Zendesk will automatically reassign solved tickets based on your Modern Solved Reassignment Strategy (or legacy solved reassignment strategy if not turned on). Zendesk will automatically unassign all other non-solved tickets and follow existing system rules for assignment. See Setting reassignment options for groups’ solved tickets. Why is Zendesk making this change? This is to create functional parity within the product, aligning the various possible behaviors that can occur when downgrading an agent’s role. What do I need to do? These changes will happen automatically. You may want to consider looking at an agent’s user profile to ensure that you have visibility into an agent’s solved tickets before downgrading them to a role without ticket editing permission. For more information:
Changing an Agent’s role
How do I change an Agent to a Light Agent?
Setting re-assignment options for Groups solved tickets