You can export account data such as tickets, users, or organizations to a JSON, CSV, or XML file.
For security reasons, you can restrict who can export the data based on the email domain of admins. You can also deactivate data exports in your account if Zendesk has enabled them. See Restricting or deactivating account data exports.
If you want to export data about your team members (your agents and admins) only, see Exporting team-member data.
The exporting tools described in this article are not available to customers on Team plans. However, customers on all Zendesk plans, including Team plans, can use the Zendesk REST API to export data. For an example, see Exporting your users with the API in the Zendesk developer guide. The article shows you how to create a small script that exports all the users in your account to a CSV file. You can then import the CSV file into your favorite spreadsheet application.
Exporting account data
To export ticket, user, or organization data from your account
- If not done already, get Zendesk to enable data exports in your account.
The account owner must contact Zendesk Customer Support to enable data exports in your account. Make sure to include your Zendesk Support subdomain name in the request.
Return here when data exports have been enabled in your account.
-
In Admin Center, click
Account in the sidebar, then select Tools > Reports.
If you don't see this option and data exports are enabled in your account, you may be restricted from exporting data. See Restricting data exports to certain admins.
If necessary, click the Export tab to display the data export options. Some legacy versions of Zendesk show the export options on a separate tab.
- Select an export option.
-
JSON export: Recommended for accounts with more than 200,000 tickets. Not
available in sandbox instances.
To run a JSON export, select a date range, select tickets, users, or organizations, then click Export.
For more information, see Full JSON export.
-
CSV export: Not available in sandbox instances.
To run a CSV export, select a date range and click Export.
For more information, see CSV export.
-
XML export:
To run an XML export, select request file next to each option. Setting a date range or selecting a data type is not available.
For more information, see Full XML export and User XML export.
-
JSON export: Recommended for accounts with more than 200,000 tickets. Not
available in sandbox instances.
export_YYYY_MM_DD_uniqueID_X
, where:-
YYYY
is the year -
MM
is the month -
DD
is the day -
uniqueID
is automatically generated and unique to an export -
X
is a numeric value related to the number of files in the zip. If there is only one file in the zip, it will end in_1
; if there are two files, you'll have files ending in_1
and_2
; etc. The numbers at the end of the file aren't related to the order of the data within the files.
Depending on the requested export date range and your account's level of ticket activity, the export process can take anywhere from a few minutes to a day or more. If you have concerns about a particular export that you're waiting for, contact Zendesk Customer Support.
If you haven't received the email notification, you can click latest beside Full JSON export, CSV export, Full XML export, or User XML export to download the most recently generated report. The latest report displays your account data from the file you last requested, not your current account data. See Delays in receiving the email with the downloadable data export file.
Understanding the data export options
You have the following data export options:
Full JSON export
Exports tickets, users, or organizations to JSON files. Accounts with more than one million tickets are downloaded in 31-day increments.
Zendesk exports the data in "NDJSON" or Newline Delimited JSON format. This format enables systems to stream JSON objects one at a time rather than read the entire file at once. This is helpful for extremely large export files, which may be too much for traditional JSON readers.
If you want a single JSON file containing all of your information rather than a streaming version, you can wrap the ticket objects in a JSON array. For example, if Zendesk exports the following ticket objects:
{"ticket":{"id":....}}
{"ticket":{"id":....}}
{"ticket":{"id":....}}
You can create a valid JSON file by wrapping the objects into a "tickets" array as follows:
{
"tickets": [
{"ticket": {"id":....}},
{"ticket": {"id":....}},
{"ticket": {"id":....}}
]
}
The date ranges for these exports use a system-generated timestamp. Typically, these timestamps match the most-recent update recorded on the ticket, user, or organization (not the creation date). There are some cases where system updates don't generate ticket events. In these cases, you may see a few unexpected tickets in the output.
- A JSON file that includes all the tickets you exported, including tickets that exceeded the 1 MB limit and were exported without comments
- A JSON file that includes the tickets that exceeded the 1 MB limit and an error message letting you know that the reason the comments were not included was because the ticket exceeded the 1 MB limit. Example:
CSV export
Exports ticket data to CSV files. The data does not include deleted tickets, ticket comments, or ticket descriptions.
If a single ticket has more than 1 MB of data, the ticket is excluded from the report. However, this rarely happens because CSV exports don't include ticket comments, which are usually the largest data component in a ticket.
All date and time values are converted to the account’s default time zone (at the time of the export). The dates displayed in the CSV file may not match the dates in the JSON export (UTC) or in Explore, which displays the user’s time zone. For more information about an account's time zone, see Setting time zone and format for Zendesk Support.
The ticket data in the report includes the data shown in the following table. Multi-line text and multi-select fields, as well as custom date fields, are excluded from CSV reports but can be included in JSON and XML reports.
Data | Description |
---|---|
ID | The ticket number. |
Requester | The name of the requester. |
Requester ID | The requester's ID number. |
Requester external id | The ID from an external system. Optional for accounts that have enabled Professional or Enterprise single sign-on using JWT or SAML. |
Requester email | The requester's primary email address. If you want to export a list of
users' secondary email addresses, you must use the List Users API endpoint while side-loading identities (for example:
|
Requester domain | The email domain of the requester's primary email address. |
Submitter | The name of the initial submitter. The requester's name is displayed if the requester submitted the ticket. If an agent submitted the ticket on behalf of the requester, the agent's name is used. If the requester is changed, the submitter does not change. |
Assignee | The assignee at the time of export. |
Group | The group at the time of export. |
Subject | The subject of the ticket. |
Tags | The tags added to the ticket at time of export. |
Status | The status at time of export |
Priority | Priority at the time of export. |
Via | The ticket channel from which the ticket originated. |
Ticket type | The type at the time of export. |
Created at | The original creation time and date. Displays in the account's time zone. |
Updated at | The time and date of the most recent update. Displays in the account's time zone. |
Assigned at | The time and date of the most recent agent assignment (i.e. the time it was assigned to the current assignee). Displays in the account's time zone. |
Organization | The organization of the current requester (if any). |
Due date | The due date at the time of export. Displays in the account's time zone. |
Initially assigned at | The time and date of first assignment to an agent (not to a group). Displays in the account's time zone. |
Solved at | The time and date of the final or most recent change to solved status. Displays in the account's time zone. |
Resolution time | The final or most recent resolution time in hours, rounded to the nearest whole hour. |
Satisfaction Score | The current satisfaction rating status (Not Offered, Offered, Good or Bad). |
Group stations | The number of group assignment changes made. The initial assignment upon ticket creation also counts as a station. |
Assignee stations | The number of agent assignment changes made. The initial assignment upon ticket creation also counts as a station. |
Reopens | The number of times a ticket has been changed from Solved to Open (whether by agent or end user). |
Replies | The number of public agent replies on a ticket to a comment from an agent or end user. |
First reply time in minutes | The time between ticket creation time and the timestamp of the first public agent comment, displayed in minutes. |
First reply time in minutes within business hours | Same as above, but only time that elapses during listed business hours is counted. |
First resolution time in minutes | The time between ticket creation time and the timestamp of the first change of status to Solved, displayed in minutes. |
First resolution time in minutes within business hours | Same as above, but only time that elapses during listed business hours is counted. |
Full resolution time in minutes | The time between ticket creation time and the timestamp of the final or most recent change of status to Solved, displayed in minutes. |
Full resolution time in minutes within business hours | Same as above, but only time that elapses during listed business hours is counted. |
Agent wait time in minutes | The total time spent in the Pending status, displayed in minutes. |
Agent wait time in minutes within business hours | Same as above, but only time that elapses during listed business hours is counted. |
Requester wait time in minutes | The combined total time spent in the New and Open statuses. If the ticket is reopened after being solved, time spent in Solved status is counted as well. Time after final change to Solved status is not included. |
Requester wait time in minutes within business hours | Same as above, but only time that elapses during listed business hours is counted. |
On hold time in minutes | The total time spent in the On-hold status, displayed in minutes. |
On hold time in minutes within business hours | Same as above, but only time that elapses during listed business hours is counted. |
Full XML export
Exports data to an XML file. This export option is not available if your account has more than 200,000 tickets. In that case, use the JSON export option.
- Accounts - all the settings for your account
- Groups - detailed information about your groups
- Organizations - detailed information about your organizations
- Tickets - all the details (including comments) for all your tickets
- Users - a list of all your users (end users, agents, and admins)
User XML export
- Groups - detailed information about your groups
- Organizations - detailed information about your organizations
- Users - a list of all your users (end users, agents, and administrators).
For the user and organization data, tags are included but custom user fields and custom organization fields are not. To retrieve your custom user fields, you can use the List User Fields endpoint in the Zendesk API. To retrieve your custom organization fields, you can use the List Organization Fields endpoint in the Zendesk API.
Exporting account data with the Zendesk API
You can also use the Zendesk API to export data from your account. For example, you can use the List Users endpoint to export all the users in your account. To learn how, see Exporting your users with the API in the Zendesk developer guide.
77 comments
Migration
I have exported tickets data into JSON using UI and set start date 1/1/2019. Now I am looking at the export result and see that the very first record "created_at" is from 2017-something. Can someone clarify how exactly the data range is being used in the UI export?
0
Pedro Reis
The satisfaction score is included on the export, but not the rating date, any chance this can be included? Or Am I missing something?
Is it possible to extract a .csv with that information from explorer?
Also, custom fields are exported via .CSV and that's great.
1
Eric Gao
Hi Yevgen,
The JSON export uses the last updated timestamp rather than the ticket creation timestamp. This means that it's pulling all tickets that have been updated since 1/1/2019 and hence it's possible for you to see tickets that were created prior to that date.
This is mentioned in the "Understanding the data export options" section as well: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/203662346-Exporting-data-to-a-JSON-CSV-or-XML-file#topic_lnw_tfb_sfb
Warm Regards,
Eric
Eric G. Gao | Technical Support Architect | Zendesk
0
Scott Franke
Hi,
I'll admit I didn't look for my question/answer through all of the comments but I did look through a lot.
Using the JSON user export, is it possible to get all of the users' identities or only the primary? In my case email address. If I want all of the email addresses, do I need to use the Rest APIs? I don't see the non-primary emails anywhere in the export.
- Scott
0
PAUL STRAUSS
Is there any way to export Public Replies and Internal Notes from all of our tickets? We want to do a pattern analysis of the content in free-form text to see if there are patterns of specific words or needs that come up frequently in our tickets.
2
Brandon Tidd
Hi @... -
You should be able to do this through the Ticket Comments API.
Alternatively, there are a few apps in the marketplace that can handle this, such as this one.
Hope this helps!
Brandon
0
Amy Dee
Hi pstrauss! The Tickets JSON export described in this article also includes ticket comments. Each comment includes its full text and whether it's public or private. It's very similar to the information you'd get from the Ticket Comments API.
Since tickets and comments can get quite large, I usually recommend smaller JSON exports. You can use the date range tools to limit the size for each file. You'll also need to use a text editor to adjust the formatting slightly, so the file as a whole can be viewed as JSON. (Each exported ticket has proper JSON formatting, but they aren't grouped together in the file.)
If the Tickets JSON export doesn't quite meet your needs, then the marketplace apps and API endpoint Brandon provided could give you more options.
I hope this helps!
0
PAUL STRAUSS
Thanks @... and @... - this is very helpful. I'll go ahead and request that exports be activated on our account and see if the JSON file works for us before diving into the API or 3rd-party app approach.
0
Tom Mililli
I have the pro plan (sell and support) and new to zendesk. I would like to backup the data from both sell and support daily at a min.
From what I have read thus far, the only way to achieve a "backup" is by exporting the data? If this is correct, can the export be automated. If so, please provide guidance and assistance.
On the other hand, if this isn't the only way, please advise on all alternative methods
Thanks
0
Pakpoom Light Agent
For Full JSON export, what's the From and To date condition? Is it used to filter by "created_at" or "updated_at" or anything else? I want to export the ticket which are created in the specific period but the result I get from the json is not what I expect.
0
Amy Dee
@... - The date range filter is based on the "generated" timestamp. It's the most recent update of any kind, which may not match a ticket's "created_at" or "updated_at" timestamp. It follows the same behavior as time-based incremental API calls. We have more information here: Excluding system-updated tickets.
@... - There are export tools in the UI that would allow you to back up your data. The article above describes the options in Support, and this article describes the options for Sell: Exporting data from Zendesk Sell. These are manual options, though. You can't automate the system export tools.
If you want to set up an automated export, you'd need to look into the API. On the Support side, I recommend the Incremental API. That allows you to pull all records that have been updated since the starting point (using the "generated" timestamp I mentioned before). On the Sell side, you could check the Sync or Firehose options in Sell's API documentation.
I hope this helps!
0
Jonathan Molina
Hi all,
I'm trying to export the Group name assigned to the Organizations on our support account, but in the JSON export the group is shown as an ID rather than the name.
Also this information does not appear in Explore, because it shows the current group assigned to a ticket, but not the general group. I'm talking about the field shown in green in the screenshot.![](/hc/user_images/NYA7mauIZ0WhpRXB8RwfeA.png)
Aybody knows how to export that data for all of our organizations?
1
Amy Dee
Hi @...! You are correct; that property isn't available in Explore at this time. The JSON export is probably the best resource for finding the groups associated with organizations.
Since the JSON export returns an ID rather than a name, you'll need a second resource to connect names with IDs. I recommend the List Groups API. It's a relatively simple GET call to https://SUBDOMAIN.zendesk.com/api/v2/groups (you can even access it in a browser as long as you're logged into your account).
The List Groups API includes each group's ID and name, so you can use it as a reference.
I hope this helps!
1
Jonathan Molina
Thanks @... works great!
0
Tito Loureiro
Are we able to export articles on guide ,from Zendesk?
0
Brett Bowser
Hey Tito,
You can use the Guide API to export your articles or you can use the kBackup app within our App Marketplace.
I hope this helps!
0
CJ Johnson
I don't actually see any way to use the API to export ticket audits with parameters like tags or specific forms. Can this be clarified? How is this achievable?
0
Amy Dee
Hi CJ! This article covers the native export options for Zendesk data. The Tickets JSON export is the most thorough of the bunch -- it includes the ticket in its current state (including tags, field values, and the form), details about all associated users, metric data, and the full comment history. It's a great resource for ticket data, but it doesn't get into individual ticket audits.
If you're interested in ticket audits, you have a couple broad options.
The Ticket Audits API shows the full audit history for a ticket. It includes every change to the ticket, including metadata for each update, all field changes, all comment text, etc. It's a complete picture, but it only supports one ticket at a time. This option is helpful if you've identified a subset of tickets (through search or some other resource), and you need to pull detailed information for that list of ticket IDs. It's not efficient for large or ongoing exports.
For large or ongoing exports that include ticket audits, I recommend the Incremental Ticket Events API. The incremental endpoints are designed to deliver lots of raw data as efficiently as possible. The ticket events endpoint returns each event on its own, complete with all changes and metadata. (You have to include the comment_events side-load if you want comment text as well.) This allows you to pull all ticket events in bulk, but you need to reassemble them into tickets separately.
I hope this helps!
1
Christian Greiner
i dont see the reports in the list
its just not there
Click the Admin icon () in the sidebar, then select Manage > Reports.
0
Amy Dee
Hi Chris! This likely means one of two things:
Exports have not been enabled. Exports are disabled by default. If they haven't yet been enabled in your account, the account owner will need to contact the support team.
There are domain restrictions on the export tools. The account owner can always reach the export page (once it's enabled), but they have the option to limit who else can access it. Only account administrators with a matching email domain will see it.
If you're an administrator on your account and you don't see the export options, check in with the account owner and reach out to Customer Support if needed.
I hope this helps!
0
Kat C
We have export abilities turned on but I can only see the option to export in CSV or XML, even after limiting dates to one month. Any ideas why I can't see the JSON option?
0
Amy Dee
Hi Kat! The CSV and XML exports do not use date filters. They always return the full account history. If you see date filters, you should have the JSON export. Here's what it looks like:
The date filters, type, and Export button are all part of the "Full JSON export" just above. Once you complete some exports, you'll see them listed above the filters as well:
If this is what you see, click the Export button and wait for an email notification. You should get a JSON export. If this isn't what you see, or you get something other than a JSON export, please reach out to our Support team to investigate further.
I hope this helps!
0
Sarah Owens
Hello,
Is it possible to export tickets using specific criteria, for instance, if I want to export tickets with a particular tag.
Best,
Sarah
0
CJ Johnson
Hi Sarah,
It depends on what you mean by exporting tickets. If you don't need every single comment, just the first message and ticket fields, it's possible, but it's trickier than the built in methods. You can do this using the Search API. Now, the good news is, you can do this without being a coder!
Here's what you want to do, in my example, we're gonna pretend the tag you want is "closed_by_merge".
1. replace the domain with your zendesk domain, and put this in your browser; https://domain.zendesk.com/api/v2/search/export.json?filter[type]=ticket&query=tags:closed_by_merge
2. You should see a JSON output of code. To convert that to CSV, run it through something like https://konklone.io/json/ .
3. Be sure to get all pages! At the bottom of the page of code displayed, you'll see a link like:
You need to copy and follow that link to get to page 2. Continue until you get a NULL/blank next page.
If you want to get fancy with this, there's guides out there on how to write Python scripts to run your search, decided what columns to collect, collect all the pages, and format it into a CSV, as well. This can be really helpful if you have thousands of results and don't want to download and convert your results page by page, and want to limit the columns in the CSV to the things you actually want/need.
5
Dave Dyson
1
Sarah Owens
Thank you, CJ 🙏 Thank you, Dave 🙏 I really appreciate your help.
Best,
Sarah
0
Marco
Here.. it is stated that the JSON exported list is NOT a valid JSON object...
... and I totally agree. In fact, I always need to use an editor to add a prefix `[` and suffix `]` and a comma after each new-line, in order to properly parse the list (eg. in python). Very annoying...
So, the question arises: Why don't you export as a proper formatted JSON array? I think this should be considered a bug more than a limitation or a works-by-design. It does not make sense to provide me with a sequence of json objects without commas and enclosing brackets!
4
Pierce Brachmann
Hello Zendesk Support,
I see we can pull lots of ticket data but is there any way to pull macros via this method?
1
Dave Dyson
Welcome to the community! There's not a built-in way to export macros, although it's possible to retrieve macro information via our API: Macros
There are some (paid) third-party apps that can be used to export Macro data (among other things): Apps Marketplace
0
Support Admin
Is this article still accurate? I don't see anything like this in my instance. Yes I can go to Account and Reports, but I have to create a Report first with limited settings, and then I can export, but only to CSV and XML, no JSON.
We are on Suite Growth, BTW
0