Editing and managing your ticket fields

Fastpath: Admin Center > Objects and rules > Tickets > Fields

You can edit ticket fields to update the title and description, configure access permissions and display information, and configure and organize ticket field values. You can also activate or deactivate ticket fields as needed or delete them entirely. For system or other protected ticket fields, some of these tasks might not be allowed.

You must be an administrator or an agent with permissions to update ticket fields.

This article contains the following topics:

• Editing ticket fields
• Deactivating and reactivating ticket fields
• Deleting ticket fields

Related articles:

• About ticket fields
• Adding custom fields to your tickets and support request forms

Editing ticket fields

You can edit some or all of the details in both custom and system fields. Not all ticket fields can be edited.

To edit a ticket field

1. In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon () in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
2. Hover over the field you want to edit, then click the field options icon () and select Edit.
3. Update the options as needed. Non-editable options are either grayed out, or will not respond to mouse clicks. In the screenshot below, the non-editable options in a system field are shown:

   

   If you are editing a drop-down field, see Altering drop-down fields to understand how changing or removing field values affects tickets.

4. If you are editing a drop-down field:
   • To add a new value, enter it in the field at the bottom of the list.
   • To remove a field option, click the x at the end of the value you want to remove.
   • To change tags for any field value, click Show tags, then change the tag you want to edit.
5. When your changes are complete, click Preview or Save at the bottom of the page.

Deactivating and reactivating ticket fields

If you want to temporarily remove a custom field created by you from a ticket, you can deactivate it. Deactivated fields can be reactivated when needed. Some system ticket fields and some fields created via business rules cannot be deactivated.

Note: If you deactivate the Priority ticket field, Zendesk SLA targets will not apply. See Setting up SLA policies. If you deactivate the Type field, all your tickets default to Incident.

Deactivated ticket fields are moved to the Inactive fields list on the Ticket Fields admin page. Deactivated ticket fields will no longer appear in the ticket form for your tickets. Deactivating ticket fields will alter Closed and Archived tickets. Any data lost from the deactivated field can be recovered again by reactivating the ticket field.

To deactivate a custom ticket field

1. In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon () in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
2. Hover over the field you want to deactivate, then click the field options icon () and select Deactivate.

   

3. In the Deactivate ticket field warning box, click Deactivate. The ticket field is moved to the Inactive fields list at the bottom of the page.

   The ticket field is moved to the Inactive fields list and no longer appears in your ticket form. The deactivated ticket field is also removed from Closed and Archived tickets.

To reactivate a custom ticket field

1. In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon () in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
2. Click the Inactive tab.
3. Hover over the field you want to activate, then click the field options icon () and select Activate.

   The ticket field is moved back to the Active ticket fields list and appears in your ticket form.

   Note: Alternatively, you can deactivate fields from their individual edit pages.

Deleting ticket fields

You can delete any custom ticket fields created by you. However, system ticket fields cannot be deleted, and those created via business rules can only be deleted by editing the business rule. Additionally, you can't delete an active ticket field; you must deactivate it first.

Deleted ticket fields will no longer appear in the ticket form for your tickets. Deleted ticket fields will also alter Closed and Archived tickets. If you delete a custom ticket field, you will not be able to recreate or recover the field or its data. If you want to preserve the field data, it is recommended that you deactivate the field instead.

To delete a custom ticket field

1. In Admin Center, click the Objects and rules icon () in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
2. Click the Inactive tab. If your ticket field is active, you'll need to deactivate it first.
3. Hover over the ticket field you want to delete, click the field options icon (), then select Edit.
4. On the edit page for the ticket field, click the field options icon (), then select Delete.
5. Click Delete to confirm the deletion.

The field is removed from your ticket fields list.