Merging a user's duplicate account

Since end-users can submit requests using different email addresses and via social media such as Twitter, it's possible that duplicate end-user accounts might be created.

The user profile allows you to enter multiple email addresses for a user and then set one as primary, which means that regardless of the email address they use to submit a request, they are properly identified and a new user account is not created.

A duplicate user account can also be created if the end-user submits a request via Twitter and their Twitter account has not been added to their user profile.

To handle multiple accounts for the same end-user, you can merge one end-user account into another end-user account. Administrator and agent user accounts cannot be merged. You can merge unverified end-users into a profile as long as they have only one or all of the following:

• Email address
• Twitter account

Note: If your account uses single sign-on and handles user authentication with JWT or SAML, you can merge users only if there's no external ID associated with a user.

After merging accounts, any tickets created by the duplicate (now merged) account are updated with the primary user account.

Important: A merge cannot be undone, so be careful to select the correct user accounts.

To merge a user's duplicate account

1. Click the Search icon () in the top toolbar.
2. Enter the name of the user you want to merge in the search box and click the user's name when it appears.

   Alternatively, you can open a user's profile from one of their tickets.

3. Click the User options menu in the upper right, then select Merge into another user.

   

   The Merge tool appears.
4. Enter the user's name and all users that match what you entered are displayed. Select the correct user and then click Merge.

   

5. When prompted, click Confirm and Merge to confirm the merge. If you want to cancel the merge, close the window instead.

How user data is merged

When you merge one user account into another, the tickets owned by the user account being merged become the tickets of the user that account was merged into and the data in each user profile is combined. The following table describes how user profile data is handled as a result of a merge. The user being merged is referred to as the merging user and the target of the merge is referred to as the receiving user. In general, the merging user will lose all data, except for tickets and email identities.

User ticket and profile data	Merge results
Tickets	All of the merging user's requested tickets are now requested by the receiving user. CCs are treated similarly. Note: Closed tickets will still show the merging user's ID.
Phone number	Merging user's number is added as a second number in the receiving user's profile
Direct Line	Receiving user's value is not affected by merge.
Primary email	Receiving user's value is not affected by merge.
Secondary email	All secondary email addresses are maintained, merging user's email is added as an additional secondary email address.
Language	Receiving user's value is not affected by merge.
Time Zone	Receiving user's value is not affected by merge.
Organization	Receiving user's value is not affected by merge. If multiple organizations are enabled in the receiving account, all organizations will be merged. If multiple organizations are not enabled and there is no original organization only one will be merged. Tickets aren't automatically updated and may maintain old organization values.
Tags	Merging user's tags are lost.
Details	Merging user's details are lost.
Notes	Merging user's notes are lost.
Picture	Receiving user's value is not affected by merge.
Fields	Receiving user's fields remain intact. Merging user's fields are lost.
External IDs	Merging user's external IDs are lost.
Help Center contributions	Votes, subscriptions, community posts, and comments on articles and posts in Help Center still exist and are visible, but they are lost (they don't become associated with the target user).