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 standard 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 standard 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 dimmed 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 Fields page determines the order in which they're displayed in several places. This includes the business rules pages in Admin Center and when tickets are bulk updated in the Agent Workspace.
For example, let’s say you have a custom field named "US region" and you reorder your ticket fields so that this field appears at the top of the Ticket fields page.
On the Triggers page, this field will appear first in the list of custom fields in the Conditions drop-down.
The position of this field is also affected on other business rules pages in Admin Center, such as automations. Additionally, if you bulk update tickets in the Agent Workspace, the position of this field is affected.
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 no longer appear in ticket forms, including those on Closed and Archived tickets. Any data lost from the deactivated field can be recovered again by reactivating the ticket field.
If you want to delete a custom ticket field, you must deactivate it first.
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 no longer appears in your ticket forms. The deactivated ticket field is also removed from Closed and Archived tickets.
To reactivate a custom ticket field
- In Admin Center, click
Objects and rules in the sidebar, then select Tickets > Fields.
- Click the Show and hide columns icon (
), then select Status.
- Find the inactive custom ticket field, click its option menu icon (
) and select Activate.
Deleting ticket fields
You can delete any custom ticket fields you've created. Standard ticket fields can't 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.
If a ticket field is being used as a conditional field on a ticket form, you must remove it from the form before deactivating and deleting the field.
Deleted ticket fields no longer appear in ticket forms, including those on 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.
- Hover over the row of the field you want to edit, then click its option menu icon
(
) and select Edit.
If your ticket field is active, you must deactivate it first.
- 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.
49 comments
Jen Tam
My team is having the same issue that @... is having. Is there any solution to this?
0
Dave Dyson
@... 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 @...!
3
Gabrielle Rosso
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.
3
Heather Rommel
Hi @...
Not natively as far as I know but there's an app for that!
https://www.zendesk.com/apps/support/ticket-field-manager/
0
Jay K
@ 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...
0
Christopher Wooten
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?
0
Brett Bowser
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!
0
Gerald Prado
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.
0
Dane
It won't have any effect on the Field ID value.
Hope this helps!
0
Shahab Sabet
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.
2
Emre Aktaş
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.
0
Heather Rommel
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/
0
Federica Sapienza
Hi,
is there a way to remove the label (optional) from a field?
0
Dane
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.
0
Simon Chang
Hi,
Is there a way for customers/end users to be able to edit their fields after submission (to make amendments/corrections)?
0
Jeff C
Hey Simon,
Unfortunately, ticket fields are only available for end-users to edit upon ticket-creation. Even thru the Requests AP endpoint , there is not an option to edit other request attributes.
0
Gabriel Horovitz
HI Team,
I've deleted one field value on a custom field I've built 6 months ago called "Category" and I have also re-arrenged the display order.
This action seems to have caused errors on old closed ticket and also on my Explore Dashboard.
The field value on old tickets is displaying an error:![](/hc/user_images/skfbMej8K04AqX66Rvwofw.png)
And since there is no value on this field the report I had for "Category" is now using "Tags" to replace the NULL values.
Is this a know issue? How can I rollback to previous version?
0
Hiedi Kysther
Hey Gabriel Horovitz,
I see you already submitted a ticket related to this issue. My colleague will update you on this. So, please check your email for more information. Thanks!
0
Kimberly Fernandez
Hello,
Can I mark a standard field with a default - For the priority standard field, I would like to default to Normal when an end-user is completing a web-form ticket request - How can I default the value Normal on the request form?
0
Jackie Fok
Every time when I create a new form, the subject and description are included and they are mandatory fields. Is it possible to remove "Description" from the form? My new form is collecting the date information and the "TEXT Description" is NOT required.
0
Gabriel Manlapig
There's currently no built-in setting in place to remove the system default "Description" field in the ticket form. However, you may use custom scripting to hide these fields in your contact forms.
Please see documentation below for your proper guidance:
Disabling the subject and description fields on the new request form in Help Center
I hope this answer your question. Thank you!
0
Matt Beesley
Is there a way to set up a drop down field that has options for the end user but other options for agents only?
0
Gab Guinto
This is not possible at the moment. You may have to use separate fields for end users and your agents for now. If you are looking to implement this on the forms in your Help Center, then you can try this workaround suggested by one of our users here. Note that we could not provide support for any customizations in the Help Center code, but if you have some coding knowledge or resources in your team, then you can explore that workaround.
Thanks Matt!
0
Alan Charlton
For certain tasks, we have a custom due date which is input by the requester. What we'd like to do is have some other custom date(s) be calculated based on that due date which will give us due date(s) for other tasks.
For example, say we need to ship equipment to a customer so that they have it on hand for a certain date (say Dec 15 - they need it in hand). So we have a custom field which is "Needed by" date which is filled out by the customer in the form. We'd like to be able to calculate a field for agents which is a "Ship by" date, which could be 7 days earlier than the "Needed by" date. The "Ship by" date would be Dec 8, which is the agent's due date for completing the ticket, otherwise it may not make it on time to the customer. Is there any way to automatically do this? I can't be the only person to have reverse timelines based on due dates...? Thanks
0
Debby Hsu
Is it possible to remove the standard fields (title and description)?
For some request types, I prefer to let users fill in other custom fields rather than "title" and "description"
0
Gab Guinto
Unfortunately, that is not natively possible in Zendesk. There may be a workaround through multiple webhooks and with liquid markup, but I'm afraid we could not provide support for that kind of custom and complicated implementation.
If you have time, I would suggest that you start a thread in the General Product Feedback topic in our community to engage with other users who have similar needs and discuss possible workarounds. Conversations with a high level of engagement ultimately get flagged for product managers to review when they go through roadmap planning.
Thanks Alan!
0
Gab Guinto
You can check out this guide for hiding the subject and description fields in the ticket forms: How can I disable the subject and description fields from the request form?.
0
Cis PMD Support
Hi there, is it possible to add additional fields to the "Type" dropdown?
0
Audrey Ann Cipriano
Hi Cis PMD Support welcome to our Community! :)
To clarify, are you referring to the system field "Type"? If so, unfortunately, it's not possible to add additional fields to it as they are native and cannot be reconfigured. What you can do it deactivate this system field and then create your own custom field "Type" where you can add as many fields as necessary :)
0
Jeremy Chapin
Is anyone else having an issue with saved data in a custom field disappearing? I have a Customer Name ticket field, to which I add new names to daily, saving them in each ticket, and roughly 25% of the names disappear by the following day, and I have to add them back in - sometimes multiple times - at which point the name "magically" reappears in the ticket. Strange how it could suddenly be there in the ticket if it was missing from the list...
1