Question
I only want to delete attachments and not the ticket. How do I delete attachments without deleting the ticket?
Answer
In accounts with Agent workspace enabled, you can use the native ticket redaction feature to remove content from tickets.
For more information about ticket attachments, see the article: Enabling attachments in tickets.
21 comments
Moniek van der Geer
Hello!
I wanted to check in on this, since the last update was 1 year ago already... Will this be updated any time soon? All links to product requests lead me to a page I'm not authorized to view, so I hope you can give some advice on this.
To speak with Maring Eberlein's words: We too are a company that really needs the ability to remove confidential attachments without fully deleting a ticket.
Thanks in advance
2
Dave Dyson
Hi Moniek –
Just to clarify, you're wanting the ability to delete attachments from Closed tickets? (Because the Ticket Redaction app does allow you to delete attachments from tickets that are not yet Closed.)
Product feedback posts that don't get a lot of traction from other users are often archived, so if this is what you want, I'd strongly recommend you create a new post in our Feedback on Support topic, using the template example to format your feedback so we can understand as much about your use case as possible. For example, it would be useful to understand the conditions under which you need to delete an attachment once the ticket has been Closed. Then other users can upvote and add their own use cases as comments there.
By default, Zendesk includes an Automation that closes Solved tickets 4 days after they've been solved. However, that timeframe can be customized to be as long as 28 days after the ticket has been solved, at which point built-in system rules take over and close the Solved ticket. So if your use case is that you're finding the need to delete tickets up to a few weeks after a ticket has been solved, adjusting or disabling that automation might be helpful. For more information, see About the Support default automations and Can I stop a ticket from closing after 28 days?
Thanks!
-2
Trae McConniel
Dave,
This is still an issue for us in Health Care and creating a new post, instead of using the one that has 49 comments over years of requesting a feature, just allows for the new post to be hidden further to let Zendesk kick the can down the road as they have done and as you will likely do as well.
Ticket redaction app does not help if the ticket is closed so its a moot point to bring up. We cant delete whole ticket as we need a record of the interaction, but if a requester, CC, or third party adds an attachment that should not be attached (HIPAA, PII, or PHI), we need to separate the attachment from the ticket and purge it from the system.
If that cant be done, I believe there would need to be a white paper on how the data that Zendesk has on closed tickets is stored and secured. Is it encrypted at rest, is it isolated by customer or in a blob, and who has access to the files?
2
Tom Stallvik
Yes, this missing feature is still a major problem!
1
Moniek van der Geer
@..., yes, I want to be able to remove attachments from tickets, but not within 28 days. Preferably we would delete them after 5-6 months.
Totally agree with @... on this one! Why make a new post if this is already filled with customers requesting this feature..
And if the feature will not be made, we will need an extensive description on how that content is managed, to be able to comply with all Data Protection Laws.
Hope to hear soon!
2
Dave Dyson
HI @..., @... and @... –
Thanks again for all your feedback. Some good news, it turns out we did recently release the capability to redact many types of content, including attachments (aside from SunCo attachments) and other content in archived or closed tickets for email, API, and webform channels, with some caveats. However, this functionality is only available when you have Agent Workspace enabled: see Redacting ticket content in the Zendesk Agent Workspace. I'm sorry I missed this in my previous response.
As it doesn't appear any of the three of you have Agent Workspace enabled currently, here are some resources for learning about it, including how to enable it, and important considerations to be aware of before you do, see About the Zendesk Agent Workspace, Resources for migrating to the Zendesk Agent Workspace, and Limitations in the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
1
Moniek van der Geer
Thank you Dave! Will look into this to see if this is a solution for us :)
1
Anil Ganti
Hello,
Is there a way to redact attachments of a Zendesk ticket by leveraging liquid scripting in a trigger? We have large number of attachments which should be redacted before the ticket status moves to "Closed" state.
We are aware that manual redaction of the content/attachments from tickets is possible using Zendesk redaction app. However, because of the volume of the attachments that are to be redacted, we are looking for an automated redaction process which can be either by using triggers, macros, other scripting techniques. Any information or a direction to solve this issue is much appreciated.
Thanks!
1
Lester Madden
@...
We had a similar issue. What we did is write some jscript and run it as a cron job every night. The script looks for relevant tickets and if they meet our critera, then we redact the attachments.
It’s been a while, something like
PUT /api/v2/tickets/{ticket_id}/comments/{comment_id}/attachments/{attachment_id}/redact
We didn’t do anything fancy and took the brut force approach of redacting any image we found for qualifying tickets.
Dunno if that helps.
1
Bilal M
@...
Looking to do the same but where a ticket is closed for over a year, to then remove the tickets attachments. Anyone have any suggestions?
0
Gabriel
I hope all is well! Kindly note that, with the Agent Workspace interface, ticket redaction works on content in archived or closed tickets for email, API, and webform channels. For more information, please check Redacting ticket content in the Zendesk Agent Workspace.
I hope this helps!
1
Fallon Albrecht
I have the same question as Bilal, we need to redact attachments that we have in tickets 2017-2019 can that also be done with the agent work space?
0
Gabriel Manlapig
Attachments content (except Sunshine conversations attachments) in archived or closed tickets for email, API, and webform channels can be redacted with agent workspace.
More information and instructions to redact ticket content on agent workspace can be found in this article:
Redacting ticket content in the Zendesk Agent Workspace
I hope this helps. Thank you!
0
Fallon Albrecht
Dear Gabriel,
Thank you for your reply.
In that article you sent it says the following:
Limitations for ticket redaction
Ticket redaction includes the following limitations:
Can you confirm that this is updated and that you can redact documents from tickets created before April 2022?
Thank you.
Fallon
0
Gabriel Manlapig
This limitation only applies to tickets generated from messaging channel. But, if your ticket is coming from email, API, and webform channels, you can redact documents from tickets created before April 2022.
For reference, please see sample GIF below:
I hope this helps! Thank you.
0
Fallon Albrecht
Thank you Gabriel!
0
Fernanda Justo
Olá, boa tarde!
Como excluir anexos de tickets, em massa, de um determinado período?
0
Dane
0
Nick Meisenheimer
In light of the recent Okta breach will you be surfacing a way for folks to remove attachments from tickets that are Closed? I am thinking specifically of HTML Archives.
Dave Dyson (gmail)
0
JR Lausin
It is technically possible to redact attachments on closed tickets. However, it can only be done via the Agent Workspace UI and not via API. Also, redaction is only possible for tickets created via email, API, and webform channels.
Please check this article for more details on this feature: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408846470170.
0
Growthdot
Hi, community!
I’d recommend checking out the Attachment Redaction add-on from our GDPR Compliance app for Zendesk. It’s super handy for deleting attachments from tickets, even the closed ones, without touching any other data. You can also pick specific file types to remove and handle everything in bulk. Definitely worth a try if you’re dealing with storage issues.
0