Why is the option to change my chat agent's role or permissions to administrator greyed out?

Note: The following applies to Zendesk accounts that have integrated Support and Chat products. If you are unsure if this applies to your account see the article: Determining your Zendesk Chat account version.

Problem

In my agent's Support profile, under the Zendesk Chat toggle, the Permissions dropdown is greyed out. I can't click it or change my agent's permissions.

In the Chat dashboard, in my agent's profile (under Settings > Agents), the dropdown next to Role is greyed out and I can't click it. Or, I can't select Administrator in the dropdown.

Solution

The administrator role for Chat is linked to the administrator role in the Support product. If an agent is an administrator in Support they will automatically be an administrator in Chat. If an agent is NOT an administrator, their Support role and Chat role are managed independent from one another. For information see the article: Are agent roles in Support and Chat connected?

To change your agent's role:

• To upgrade a Chat agent to a Chat administrator, change the agent's role in Support as described in this article: Changing an agent's role and status.
• To downgrade a Chat administrator to an agent level role, first downgrade their role in Support to an agent-level role. You will now see the button Manage role in Chat under the Zendesk Chat toggle on that agent's Support profile. This button redirects you to the Chat product to manage their Chat role separately. If you do not see this option, navigate to the Chat settings manually by opening the Chat dashboard and navigating to Settings > Agents > your agent.

Tip: It is not possible to have a user be an administrator in one product and an Agent in the other product. If you would like to work around this limitation, consider using Chat custom roles to give your Chat agents more permissions without making them an administrator in Support. For more information see this article: Creating custom Chat roles and assigning users.

For more information managing roles within the Chat product see these articles: 

• Creating and updating agents: Chat Phase 3
• Understanding default roles in Zendesk Chat
• Creating custom Chat roles and assigning users