You can edit custom 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 in a custom role with permission to update ticket fields.
This article contains the following topics:
Related articles:
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
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Hover over the row of the field you want to edit, then click the option menu icon (
) and select Edit.
- Update the options as needed.
If you are editing a drop-down field, see Altering drop-down fields to understand how changing or removing field values affects tickets.
Non-editable options are either grayed out, or will not respond to mouse clicks. - When your changes are complete, click Save.
Reordering ticket fields
The order of your custom ticket fields on the active tab of the Ticket fields page determines the order they're displayed in Agent Workspace.
To change the order of custom ticket fields
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Click Actions and select Edit order.
- Click and drag the rows into the order you want or use the arrows on each row to move them up or down in the list.
- Click Save.
Deactivating and reactivating ticket fields
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
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Hover over the field you want to deactivate, then click the options menu icon (
) and select Deactivate.
- Click Deactivate to confirm you want to deactivate the custom field.
The custom ticket field moves to the Inactive tab and no longer appears in your ticket forms. The deactivated ticket field is also removed from tickets with a status of closed and archived.
To reactivate a custom ticket field
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Find the custom ticket field on the Inactive tab, click the option menu icon (
) and select Activate.
The custom ticket field moves to the Active tab and appears in your ticket form.
Deleting ticket fields
You can delete any custom ticket fields created by you. However, standard 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
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Click the Inactive tab. If your ticket field is active, you'll need to deactivate it first.
- Hover over the row of the field you want to edit, then click the option menu icon (
) and select Edit.
- Click the option menu icon (
) at the top of the page, then select Delete.
- Click Delete to confirm the deletion.
The field is removed from your ticket fields list.
14 Comments
My team is having the same issue that @... is having. Is there any solution to this?
@... and @... –
There isn't a way from within Zendesk to copy the contents of one field to another.
As Sondra says, one way to do this would be to use the API that retrieves the deprecated field's contents and copy those to the new field (thought I imagine this might require some mapping of "old value" to "new value", since presumably the new field will have a different set of values than the old field, and I'm also presuming you're using dropdown fields for this).
Sondra also mentioned what I think may be a better solution, which I'll expand on a bit: rename your old field to the new name, add the new field values to that field, and change the names of the old field values (but not the associated tags), adding something like "DEPRECATED", "OBSOLETE", or "OLD - DO NOT USE" to the beginning of the names of the values. That way you won't lose any data. You could go one step farther, and use nesting to group all your outdated field values into a single top-level value, to minimize clutter in your new field. Another advantage of this method is that you can't change the values stored in Closed tickets, since those tickets are immutable. Changing the names but leaving the tags in place means you'll still have the data in these Closed tickets as well.
Finally, I'd add that it's always a good idea to test out changes like these in a test field so you don't make a mistake, using a sandbox account if you have one, or using a temporary dropdown field in your production account (let your agents know so they don't get confused by it).
Hope that helps, and thanks @...!
Hello,
Is there a way to create a custom field available for agents which would be editable by admins only? Basically, we don't want agents to be able to modify it but have the information in read only.
Hi @...
Not natively as far as I know but there's an app for that!
https://www.zendesk.com/apps/support/ticket-field-manager/
@ ZD KB writers... It would be great to modify this article to discuss the Ticket Field Manager Application, that allows users to hid values from custom fields...
Love the new view and the form features. I used to have a huge google sheet I used to have to use. When did this hit prod?
Glad to hear these improvements are working well for you :). I believe we released this functionality earlier this year.
Be sure to follow our Announcements page for more product updates as they're released.
Cheers!
Will renaming my custom field cause issues with reporting or change the field ID value? I want to update a field but I don't want to break our macros.
It won't have any effect on the Field ID value.
Hope this helps!
Please make the 'default value' functionality work. It doesn't matter what I select the default value to be, agents always have to make a selection.
Hi ,
i have a problem with custom field, one of our team leaders cant see this field, what could be the reason for this and how can i grant this access to him ? Permissions of this field is "Agent can edit"
This is our custom field.
Thanks.
Hi Emre Aktaş,
I suspect the admin has installed this app and configured that field to be hidden perhaps? https://www.zendesk.com/marketplace/apps/support/223753/ticket-field-manager/
Hi,
is there a way to remove the label (optional) from a field?
If it's regarding the submit a request form, you'll need to make sure that the ticket field is "Required to submit a request" in order for it to be removed.
Please sign in to leave a comment.