This article contains a few scenarios in which an agent in Guided mode may serve a ticket that already has someone on it. Use this guide to understand these scenarios, and how to avoid them.

Guided mode automatically serves tickets which are not looked at by other agents. A group of people could use the Play button in a view. Agents expect the system to avoid agent collision.

This feature works if:

  • All the tickets in this view are not looked at by anyone else outside this group
  • Every agent in the group is always using the Play button
  • No agent opens tickets from the view in a different way

This article includes the following topics:

  • Scenarios of agent collision
  • Identify and avoid agent collision

For more information on agent collision and Guided mode, see this article: Working with tickets.

Scenarios of agent collision

Three common scenarios may lead to agent collision in Guided mode:

  • Scenario 1: Another agent manually opened a ticket
  • Scenario 2: Lost connection in Guided mode
  • Scenario 3: Lost connection outside of Guided mode

Scenario 1: Another agent manually opened a ticket

If an agent is looking at a ticket in Guided mode, nothing can stop another agent, who is not using Guided mode, from manually opening that ticket. For example, an example could click that ticket after finding it in a search.

Scenario 2: Lost connection in Guided mode

Assume that agents A and B are using Guided mode. If agent A leaves for lunch, with a ticket tab open and ticket T. That agent is online on ticket T and then while at lunch, the agent loses network connectivity or the laptop goes into sleep mode. Agent A is now no longer online and to the system, agent A is no longer on the ticket.

Agent B is served ticket T with the Play button, and works on the ticket.

Scenario 3: Lost connection outside of Guided mode

Another scenario could be:

  1. Agent A and agent B are not using Guided mode
  2. Agent B opens ticket T
  3. Agent A then opens ticket T and is shown a message telling her that the ticket is also open with Agent B
  4. Agent A loses internet connectivity and the message remains
  5. Agent B closes ticket T
  6. Agent A come back online and still see the message, even though agent B is no longer on the ticket

Identify and address agent collision

To identify and address Guided mode or agent presence issues, look into the following:

  • Step 1: Clear the browser cache and cookies
  • Step 2: Verify URLS for the presence of agents
  • Step 3: Be aware of long periods of agent inactivity
  • Step 4: Ensure that agents do not log into multiple devices or tabs
  • Step 5: Do not manually take tickets

Step 1: Clear the browser cache and cookies

Zendesk uses various cookies to manage agent presence. If you experience issues, ask agents to clear their cache and cookies regularly.

Step 2: Verify URLS for the presence of agents

To ascertain whether an agent is on a ticket, do not use the same URL you use for requests to the rest of Zendesk , such as mydomain.zendesk.com. Instead, use a URL that looks like: pubsub-shardC-P-N.zendesk.com, where:

  • C is the cluster of the account, this is a value between 1 and 3
  • P is the pod of the account
  • N is a random number from 1 to 4

For example, using developer tools from Chrome and, filtering by pubsub, the url is https://pubsub-shard2-17-3.zendesk.com:

In the above example, for this specific account:

  • C = 2
  • P = 17
  • N = 3 , but could be any number between 1 and 4

Allow the following URLs for this account, as well as in your VPN, firewall, and any antivirus software you use:

  • https://pubsub-shard2-17-1.zendesk.com
  • https://pubsub-shard2-17-2.zendesk.com
  • https://pubsub-shard2-17-3.zendesk.com
  • https://pubsub-shard2-17-4.zendesk.com

Step 3: Be aware of long periods of agent inactivity

Agent collisions happen due to long periods of inactivity on a ticket. When the screen is not active, the system does not register that the agent is working on the ticket.

For information on identifying agents viewing, editing, or idling in a ticket, see this article: Avoiding agent collision.

Step 4: Ensure that agents do not log into multiple devices or tabs

Agents logged into Zendesk on multiple devices prevent the system from registering open tickets.

Step 5: Do not manually take tickets

Agents using the Play button when an agent manually takes a ticket cause agent collision.

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