This article describes Zendesk support for popular, industry-standard browsers that restrict how cookies are recognized and used. This article contains the following sections:
Apple Safari browsers
Recent versions of Apple Safari browsers include Apple’s Intelligent Tracking Prevention (ITP) safeguards. To protect personal information, these safeguards can restrict how first-party and third-party cookies are recognized and used in the browser. In turn, restricting cookie usage has an impact on many popular, browser-based applications, including Zendesk.
To address the impact of cookie restrictions in Safari browsers, Zendesk has introduced a new flow that recognizes when you are using a Safari browser on a host-mapped domain and prompts you to authorize Zendesk to use cookies. While logging in, you will have to acknowledge several prompts to indicate your acceptance of cookies in the browser. This behavior will be the same for agents and administrators.
To log in to Zendesk using a Safari browser
- Navigate to your Zendesk sign in page using a Safari browser.
The sign in page displays a warning that cookies are required to use Safari. To continue signing in using Safari, you will authorize cookies to be stored on your device.
- In the Cookies required to use Safari box, click Continue.
A new page displays information about the cookie requirements.
- On the Safari cookie requirements page, click Continue to acknowledge the requirement.
- On the sign-in page, again click Continue.
You will be prompted by a Safari dialog box whether or not to allow cookies to be used by your Zendesk domain.
- Choose Allow in the Safari dialog box to allow Zendesk to use cookies and website data while browsing the domain.
The page reloads again, and there are no longer any warning messages displayed. You can now log in.
- Enter your credentials to complete logging in to Zendesk and click Sign in.
Google Chrome browser v.80
On February 17, 2020, Google released Chrome v.80. This release includes a change to cookies (the SameSite update) which requires Zendesk to explicitly label any Zendesk cookies that can be used on other sites. Cookies without the proper labeling won’t work in the Chrome browser. Zendesk has completed the cookie labelling requirement and is not expecting any issues, unless you're using incognito mode to sign in
On March 19, 2020, Chrome released a feature that blocks third-party cookies when using incognito mode. Therefore, you are restricted from signing in to a host-mapped domain in incognito mode. As a workaround, don't use incognito mode to sign in, or use the toggle located directly in the incognito browser window to disable the block on third-party cookies.
Mozilla Firefox browser version 85.0
With Firefox version 85.0, Zendesk can recognize when you are using a Firefox browser on a host-mapped domain and prompt you to authorize Zendesk to use cookies. While logging in, you will have to acknowledge several prompts to indicate your acceptance of cookies in the browser. This behavior will be the same for agents and administrators.
To log in to Zendesk using a Firefox browser
- Navigate to your Zendesk sign in page using a Firefox browser.
The sign in page displays a warning that cookies are required to use Firefox. To continue signing in using Firefox, you will authorize cookies to be stored on your device.
- In the Cookies required to use Firefox box, click Continue.
A new page displays information about the cookie requirements.
- Enter your credentials to complete logging in to Zendesk and click Sign in.
Continued support for Safari, Chrome, and Firefox
At Zendesk, we’re working to maintain and improve Safari, Chrome, and Firefox support. We will continue to find the best way possible to manage these ITP and cookie updates and provide you with the best experience possible for you and your customers. We recommend following this topic for the latest information and updates.
77 Comments
Our yearly renewal is also coming up but this issue has made us look into other solutions.
Still an issue and now it affects Edge as well.
Again as has been 2.5 months since this was asked...
Max McCal Caroline Kello When can we expect to see this resolved properly?
Asking our customers to turn off or add exceptions for 3rd party cookies is not merely suboptimal, it's something that most will simply not do, and both we and our customers suffer greatly as a result.
Max McCal You wrote on July 16, 2021 that zendesk intending to fully cease using third party cookies as part of the login experience for host mapped accounts. 9 months have passed so can you please give us an update on the status of that plan.
I had a customer furious with me (my company) the other day because of this exact issue. Their attitude was, that the entire experience left them frustrated and angry. They were not placated by the knowledge that this was zendesk's fault. They felt like we had let them down.
Michael Bierman I had the same issue also again and again in the past. A client wants to log in to zendesk to create a support case. In such a situation the client is already stressed with the issue that he wants to report and gets seriously frustrated if he first has to click 5 times till he finally is allowed to enter his credentials.
One of the most important features of a helpdesk system should be, that it is easy for users no matter which browser they use to access it, right?
Hi everyone, thank you very much for posting your questions and concerns on this thread, your feedback is important to us. We at Zendesk constantly strive to improve our product based on customer research and feedback received through the community. My name is Barkha Bhatia, I'm a Principal Product Manager at Zendesk, taking over and leading the Zendesk authentication experience.
Over this thread, we notice two concerns regarding the user’s login for a Zendesk host mapped account for the browsers which have blocked the usage of third party cookies:
If you want to know more, I am happy to set up a 1-1 chat with you. I look forward to sharing our early design, listening to feedback, and maintaining an ongoing conversation with you on this topic.
I have lost track of how many times a Zendesk representative has said this.
Hi Barkha Bhatia
Thank you for your offer but I really don't need 1-1 chat. What we need is Zendesk delivering on the promise from July 16, 2021 to fully cease using third party cookies as part of the login experience for host mapped accounts.
Honestly Barkha Bhatia, you know any product other then Zendesk where a user has to click 5 times before he is allowed to start with the login process??? The Zendesk login process is broken, and it's broken for years, and you guys need now to act swiftly on this. I just checked my activities with zendesk support and actually found the ticket I created on October 15, 2019 about that issue with the title "Users can't login into zendesk with Safari" (ID: 4930495). This is now 2.5 years ago!
Hi Barkha Bhatia
I agree with Tobias Linder, your post provides no updated information on how and when this will be resolved. Please provide us with an actual update on progress here as was promised on July 16, 2021.
Zendesk clearly has no intention of addressing this. It's time to look elsewhere.
Chet Farmer's comment describes my dilemma: I had been considering using Zendesk for my consulting practice, but I abandoned that plan because most of my clients are Mac users – I certainly won't subject them to this long-standing problem.
I actually discovered this discussion when I encountered the login hassle as a user seeking tech support from a vendor using Zendesk.
The sad fact is Chrome, the browser with the largest market share by a substantial margin, won't be impacted until mid to late 2023. I get the impression this is the due date for Zendesk, regardless of what we say here in the comments.
Barkha Bhatia, you kind of activated a landmine with your "update" as it provided no new information. So everyone was waiting quietly for a real update, only to be fed a giant plate of nothing.
Someday, maybe, "product managers" will learn that honesty and forthrightness are better moves than trying to spin a non-update or "won't fix" message.
Jon Yergatian I guess you are right. But for a helpdesk product only focussing on the browser with the biggest market share is really not a reasonable approach. About 20% of all users are using Safari and all these are stuck in this "klick 5 times before login"-experience.
My company is managing 100'000 apple devices so I guess about 90% of our users are using Safari to access our helpdesk.
The problem is actually much worse than that. If a proprietary solution exposes its clients to the joys of Zendesk, the clients can just ditch the solution and find a more respectful one. It is not so easy with open source clients; for example, KDE uses GitLab and GitLab uses Zendesk. Assuming that ditching KDE is not an option, there really is no way out.
Hey, all – We have closed the comments on this article. Your feedback is valid, and we agree that there is much we can do better here. Our development team is working on improvements to the login user experience, targeting release by the end of September 2022 (timelines are based on best of our knowledge as of today and are subject to change). We will update this comment thread and our documentation when this happens. I truly appreciate everyone's concern here, but the conversation has stopped being useful for the average user who is looking to understand the way the product functions today. We welcome your feedback, but would prefer if you direct it to our community.
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