In most cases, Zendesk automatically archives tickets 120 days after they are closed. While archived tickets are still accessible, it's recommended to delete them regularly.
Admins can create one deletion schedule to delete archived tickets after a specified period of time. This is an automated way to help comply with data retention laws and manage data storage in your Zendesk account. If tickets contain sensitive information, a deletion schedule helps you create data retention policies to comply with global privacy legislation such as GDPR and CRPA.
The Advanced Data Privacy and Protection (ADPP) add-on is recommended when creating advanced data retention policies because it allows you to activate multiple deletion schedules. The add-on also lets you build custom conditions for deleting tickets. See Creating multiple ticket deletion schedules for advanced data retention policies.
About deletion schedules
Deletion schedules allow admins and agents in custom roles with permission to delete archived tickets, which are tickets that have been closed for more than 120 days.
You can activate one deletion schedule to continuously search for and delete tickets that have been closed and not modified for a specified period of time. For example, if you create a schedule that deletes archived tickets 365 days after they are closed, and the ticket was modified within that time (for example, ticket content was redacted), the ticket is not deleted. The clock starts over, and the ticket will be deleted 365 days from the modification date.
Deletion schedules start to delete eligible tickets within 72 hours of activation. Up to 200,000 tickets per account per day will be deleted.
After it's activated, a deletion schedule isn't a one-off event. Zendesk continuously searches for and deletes tickets unless you deactivate the schedule. There is no impact on performance when a schedule deletes a large volume of tickets or runs during busy periods.
You can create up to ten deletion schedules on the Deletion schedules page in Admin Center, but only one schedule can be active at a time.
Tickets deleted by deletion schedules aren't included in the Deleted Tickets view. You can track these changes in the audit log by filtering by Activity type: Deleted.
Creating deletion schedules
You can create up to ten deletion schedules, but only one schedule can be active.
To create a deletion schedule
- In Admin Center, click
Account in the sidebar, then select Security > Deletion schedules. - Click Create deletion schedule.
- Enter the Schedule name.
Use a consistent naming convention to help you recognize similar types of deletion schedules.
- (Optional) Enter a Description for your deletion schedule.
- For Last updated, specify when the schedule should delete tickets. For example, to delete tickets three years after were last updated, type 3 for Value and select Years in the Unit drop-down field.
Note: Deletion schedules only delete archived tickets, which are tickets that have been closed for more than 120 days. If you enter less than 120 days, the deletion schedule will run at 120 days. - (Optional) Click Add condition to configure the deletion schedule to delete archived tickets that meet a specific condition (for example, Brand is North America). See Building condition statements for deletion schedules.
- (Optional) Click Preview to preview the number of tickets that match and will be deleted when the schedule is active.
- Click Create.
- Activate the deletion schedule.
Building condition statements for deletion schedules
Condition statements consist of categories, field operators, and condition values (which vary depending on the category selected). Condition statements are essentially ‘if’ statements that delete tickets meeting the specified criteria.
You can add one condition statement to your deletion schedule (for example, Group is not Human Resources). To build advanced statements that include multiple conditions, the Advanced Data Privacy and Protection (ADPP) add-on is required. See Creating multiple ticket deletion schedules for advanced data retention policies.
The table below lists the categories available for building a condition statement.
| Category | Description |
|---|---|
| Last updated | Deletes tickets based on when they were last updated. At least one Last updated condition is required.
Deletion schedules delete tickets that have been closed and not modified for the period of time specified for Last updated. For example, if Last updated is set to 365 days, and the ticket was modified within that time (for example, ticket content was redacted), the ticket is not deleted. The clock starts over, and the ticket will be deleted 365 days from the modification date. |
| Custom fields | Deletes tickets based on custom field values. |
| Brand | Deletes tickets by brand. |
| Form | Deletes tickets by ticket form, if you use multiple ticket forms. |
| Group | Deletes tickets by group. |
| Type | Deletes tickets based on the ticket type: Question, Incident, Problem, or Task. |
| Requester | Deletes tickets based on the requester name. |
| Organization | Deletes tickets based on organization, if you have multiple organizations. |
| Tags | Deletes tickets with the selected ticket tags. |
Activating a deletion schedule
Deletion schedules are inactive when you create them. You must activate a deletion schedule for it to start deleting tickets. Only one deletion schedule can be active at a time.
To activate a deletion schedule
- In Admin Center, click Account in the sidebar, then select Security > Deletion schedules.
- Click the options menu icon (
) for the inactive schedule, then click Activate. - In the confirmation dialog, select the checkboxes to confirm you understand that tickets will be deleted immediately and as scheduled moving forward.
- Click Activate deletion schedule.
Managing deletion schedules
Use the options menu icon to activate, deactivate, edit, or delete a deletion schedule. A deletion schedule must be inactive before you can delete it.