This article describes how to rename your account subdomain. You can rename the subdomain of a paid account or a trial account, but not a sandbox account.
It's important to remember that if you decide to rename your subdomain (mycompany.zendesk.com), you are actually changing the address of your account. This change is immediate. Your Zendesk account will no longer be at your old URL, and unfortunately, Zendesk cannot set up a redirect on your behalf. As an alternative to renaming your subdomain, you might consider a simple account name change instead.
For Team, Professional, and Enterprise, host mapping (purchasing another domain that points to your Zendesk) is highly recommended as an alternative to changing your subdomain. This enables you to change the URL that your customers see when accessing your Help Center, without having to change the actual address of your agent interface or Zendesk account. To set up host mapping, see Changing the URL of your Help Center.
The tasks in this article will help alleviate the obvious concerns with renaming your subdomain, but there is always the possibility of surprise errors. Consider your entire workflow before making this change.
Step 1: Tasks before renaming your subdomain
Before renaming your subdomain you should update the following items:
CNAME, host maps, and SSL
First and foremost, if applicable, you'll want to update any email forwarding and host mapping to point to your new support address and URL in sync with renaming your subdomain to avoid missing any incoming tickets. This includes the wildcard email option (see Accepting wildcard email addresses for support requests). You should "flip the switch" during a slow period to be sure you have time to get everything in order.
You'll also want to ensure that any CNAME changes and certificate updates are done with your customer service team in advance to changing your subdomain. You will need to add a new CNAME for your new Zendesk subdomain with a new hostmap URL. Additionally, you'll need to set up a redirect from your old hostmap to your new one. This can take time to set up.
You can obtain a new SSL certificate by grabbing a Certificate Signing Request, and then uploading the new certificate to Zendesk Support. You need to install a new SSL certificate that covers the changed host mapped URL. For more information, see Replacing your current SSL certificate.
JIRA
If you've enabled the JIRA On Demand integration, you'll want to update your JIRA before changing your subdomain.
- Uninstall the App from Zendesk Support in the Admin >Apps>Manage Apps.
- Disable JIRA > Admin > Manage Add-Ons > Zendesk Support for JIRA > Disable**
- Rename your subdomain.
- Enable the connector again in JIRA.
- Select the Configure option in the connector setup.
- On the next screen, click on Complete set-up to install the App.
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
- Go back to Zendesk Support and check to see if the JIRA OnDemand App loads properly.
Step 2: Rename your subdomain
When you're ready to rename your subdomain, you can follow these steps to change. Only the account owner can rename the subdomain.
To rename the subdomain
- Click the Admin icon (
), then select Settings > Account.
- On the Account page, click the Branding tab.
- Click Change your subdomain.Note: If you have multiple brands, click Brands menu instead of Change your subdomain.
- Enter your new subdomain into the dialog box as shown below, and then confirm your changes by clicking the Rename Subdomain button.
You'll need to refresh your browser to view the change.
The good news is not everything changes when you update your subdomain. All your existing users, tickets, organizations, and groups will automatically exist at your new URL. Additionally, your triggers and automations will be all set. While your users will need to re-login to your new Zendesk location, their profiles and ticket histories will still be intact.
Be sure to complete the tasks in the next section after you change your subdomain.
Step 3: Tasks after renaming your subdomain
After renaming your subdomain you should update the following items:
- Ticket sharing agreements
- CSAT representation/ Web Widget
- Ticket replies
- Mobile SDK
- Zendesk Talk
- API tokens/credentials
- Single sign-on
- Zendesk Chat
Ticket sharing agreements
If you have any active ticket sharing agreements, you'll need to deactivate and recreate them after changing your subdomain. This includes any receiving ticket sharing agreements, which means that you'll also need the admins of those Zendesk accounts to recreate your sharing agreements to update the location of your Zendesk account.
Sharing on individual tickets will also no longer work. After you rename your subdomain and update your sharing agreements, you'll have to manually update all shared tickets to reflect the new sharing agreement.
CSAT representation/ Web Widget
If you have any widgets, you will need to update them after changing your subdomain. You will also need to update your jQuery if you have made modifications to your CSAT representation. For more information on updating your satisfaction ratings in JSON format see, Displaying your last 100 satisfaction ratings.
You must update your widgets for your Help Center and website individually after you have changed your subdomain name.
To update your Web Widget:
- Click the Admin icon (
) in the sidebar, then select Channels>Widget .
- Click the Setup tab, if it is not already selected.
- Under the code box, click Copy to clipboard.
- To edit your widget on your website, go to the web page where you want to add the widget, then paste the updated code before closing HTML </HEAD> tag. You need to add the code to every webpage where you want to update the widget.
To update your Help Center widget:
- In Help Center, click Customize design in the tools panel, then click edit them.
- Select the Header template from the drop-down.
- Delete any existing Help Center widget code you have.
- Paste the updated code before the </HEADER> ; tag.
- Click save, then click Publish changes.
For more information on updating your widgets see, Using Web Widget to embed customer service in your website.
Ticket replies
If you use email notifications, customer replies to Open or Pending ticket notifications sent prior to the subdomain change will not be received in your account or added as updates to those tickets. All ticket URLs sent in email notifications prior to the subdomain change will now also be invalid. To correct this, you'll want to update all of these with a public comment after changing your subdomain.
Start by creating a view of all the unsolved tickets in your instance of Zendesk Support. If you haven't done too much customization, you might already have this native view active in your account.
From this view, you can mass edit all your tickets with whatever comment you like. The new reply to email address will now be valid, and if you use the {{ticket.URL}} placeholder, it will populate with the updated ticket URL.
Mobile SDK
You will need to update the code on your Mobile SDK, so it will point to the correct Zendesk URL after you've updated your subdomain.
To update your Mobile SDK:
- Go to Admin > Channels > Mobile SDK.
- Locate the code snippet with your subdomain in your Android and iOS code.
- Give your developer the updated code snippets.
Zendesk Talk
If you experience issues with Zendesk talk after changing your subdomain, please send a request to our customer service team at support@zendesk.com.
API authentication
If you are using Zendesk API to fetch or send data in your account, make sure to update the subdomain you are pointing to so the API call doesn’t fail.
Example:
https://{OLDsubdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/tickets.json \ -v -u {email_address}:{password} https://{NEWsubdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/tickets.json \ -v -u {email_address}:{password}
Also, if your email address or your agents' email addresses changed, you might need to update your API tokens or credentials. For more information, see Generating a new API token in our Support tech notes.
Single sign-on
Both SAML and JWT pass the SSO request to Zendesk Access Consumer URL, which references your account subdomain. You will not be able to sign in via SSO until you update the subdomain.
For information on setting up SSO, see Using SAML for single sign-on (Professional and Enterprise) and Setting up single sign-on with JWT (JSON Web Token).
Zendesk Chat
If you originally purchased Chat separately then later linked your Chat account with your Support account, your Chat account will fail to create tickets. You will need to contact our customer service team to make changes.
If you purchased Zendesk Chat and Zendesk Support together, updates occur automatically and no action is required.
11 Comments
Is there any way to have support.x.zendesk.com display as support.x.com?
Regarding mobile sdk after change the sub-domain. Can I just pre update the new URL on the mobile code first to submit to the app store before i do the real change on zendesk?
Hi Hung Vo,
I would advise changing your subdomain in your Zendesk account prior to submission to the app store. It will ensure that the subdomain in your code is working and any review of your app goes quickly. Otherwise if it's something that comes up in the review, you should be able to discuss it during the feedback step of publishing an app.
Cheers,
Ben Goff
Hi Isaac,
You can use host mapping to accomplish your desire "to have support.x.zendesk.com display as support.x.com". More details can be found here. Thanks!
You write "You'll also want to ensure that any CNAME changes and certificate updates are done with our customer service team in advance to changing your subdomain".
I am on a plan that does not have access to customer service via email, and when I wrote to inquire what I need to do with customer service to ensure the above, they said they wouldn't answer me.
What is required of people who do not have customer service access in lieu of "ensure that any CNAME changes and certificate updates are done with our customer service team in advance to changing your subdomain"?
Hey Aimee!
I'm guessing that you're on the Essential plan, since that's the only one that doesn't include email support. Please let me know if I've missed the mark!
CNAME changes and certificate updates are related to features that aren't available on the Essential plan (namely, host mapping and SSL encryption). Since you don't have access to those features, you don't need to worry about making any updates to them.
Wait, did this change, like, yesterday? I no longer see the subdomain field on the Branding page under Account settings. Are there any other changes I need to know about as I'm heading into a company rebranding exercise soon?
Hey Adam,
No changes were made to this field. You may want to try clearing your browser's cache and cookies as that could be contributing to you not seeing the subdomain section. If that does not work please reach out to us at support@zendesk.com and we'd be happy to take a look.
Also you would only be able to change this if you were the account owner so that may also be to blame.
We are rebranding our product and want to change the subdomain for our Zendesk help.
I read through this page, Renaming your subdomain: the side effects . However, when I follow the steps and sign into my Account and go to Settings > Account, I don't see a section for Subdomain. I only see:
Has the option moved to another part of the settings? Or do I not have the requisite permissions? if so, how do I request a change?
Thanks.
@Shydemoyer I believe you have to be the account owner and not just an admin...
What is the benefit to renaming the subdomain in addition to host mapping?
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