To export Zendesk tickets, the account owner first asks Zendesk Customer Support to turn on account exports, then an admin downloads ticket JSON from Admin Center. Keep the official export instructions open while you work.
Who runs it and how long it takes
- Who asks: the account owner, by contacting Zendesk Customer Support.
- Who exports: admins, plus custom agent roles with export permission, once the export is switched on. Zendesk can restrict export to certain admins.
- Plans: Zendesk lists the export for Suites Growth, Professional, Enterprise and Enterprise Plus, and for Support Professional and Enterprise, and not on Team plans.
- Time to switch on: in the two Zendesk articles we read, we found no stated time for switching it on.
- Sandboxes: Zendesk says JSON and CSV exports are not available in sandbox instances.
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The steps
- The account owner asks Zendesk Customer Support to enable account data exports, giving the Support subdomain.
- When it is enabled, open Admin Center > Account > Tools > Reports, then Export if it is a separate tab.
- Choose JSON, the date range you need and the type: tickets first, then users and organizations.
- Click Export. Download the ZIP from the email, or use latest beside the export in Reports if you have not received the email. latest returns the last file requested, not current data.
- Keep every downloaded part. Zendesk names the files inside a ZIP export_YYYY_MM_DD_uniqueID_X, where X is a number that counts the files in the ZIP, so a large export arrives as several files ending _1, _2 and so on. The numbers do not follow the order of the data.
Choose JSON
| Format | What it holds |
|---|---|
| JSON | Full tickets with their comments, as NDJSON (one object per line); Zendesk recommends it above 200,000 tickets; split into 31-day periods above a million |
| CSV | A partial list: no comments, descriptions or deleted tickets |
| XML | Capped at 500 MB, which is roughly 200,000 tickets; Zendesk says setting a date range or selecting a data type is not available |
A ticket bigger than 1 MB can lose its comments in JSON, and records changed in the six minutes before you request the export are left out. Tickets handled entirely by Zendesk's AI agent are not included.
Check the export on your computer
Keep the Zendesk ZIPs on your computer while you check the ticket, user and organization files against Zendesk's own counts.
- Unzip each ZIP and open the JSON file. Zendesk writes JSON as NDJSON, so each line is one object. Add up the lines in every tickets file for the same date range and compare the total with the count of tickets in Zendesk for that range. Do the same for users and organizations. Write down both numbers.
- Look for the tickets Zendesk leaves out. A ticket with more than 1 MB of data has no comments in the JSON file, and Zendesk lists those tickets in a second JSON file with an error message. Records changed in the six minutes before you requested the export are not in the file, and tickets handled entirely by Zendesk's AI agent cannot be exported. Write down how many tickets the second file lists, and keep that count apart from the lines in the tickets files.
- If your account has more than one million tickets, Zendesk downloads the export in 31-day increments. List the periods you expect and check that a file exists for each one.
- Write down the request date, the date range, the type and the name of each ZIP. If you get an error on the export, adjust the date range and try again. If an export stalls, contact Zendesk Customer Support.
- Keep the ZIPs as Zendesk produced them. Do not open and re-save the JSON files.
If the export does not work
- The Export option is missing. Zendesk says to ask the account owner whether they can see it under Admin Center, Account, Tools, Reports. If the owner cannot, they contact Zendesk Customer Support to enable account data exports. If the owner can see it and you cannot, they check that you have admin permissions and that your email address matches any approved email domains listed.
- You see "Full XML export is no longer supported." Zendesk shows this error when you try to export more than 200,000 tickets as XML. Choose JSON.
- You see another error. Adjust the date range and try again.
- The export stalls. Contact Zendesk Customer Support.
Match the ticket trail to the export
| Part of your archive | What to check |
|---|---|
| Ticket text and comments | Use NDJSON rather than CSV. Compare a ticket with several replies against its exported conversation. |
| Oversized tickets | Count the second-file errors for tickets above 1 MB; keep that exception count beside your ticket total. |
| Recent updates | Record when you requested the export; the six-minute exclusion affects a changing account. |
| Attachments | Check a ticket with a known attachment and record whether the package contains the file itself or a reference. Keep the attachment count separate from the ticket count. |
| Date-range parts | List each expected 31-day period for accounts above one million tickets and reconcile every downloaded part. |
Keep a local inventory with one row per file: export request time, date range, record type, file name, record count, error count and attachment check. Compare the same scope in Zendesk and the downloaded files; retain both counts when they differ. A matching ticket total alone does not confirm the conversation or attachment coverage.
Review the inventory before sharing records
Use your ticket, user and organization inventory to request an eligibility review. Keep the raw Zendesk files on your computer, and agree the scope, permissions and sample-review steps before sharing any records.
Support history often sits next to chat history. If your team also used Intercom, the Intercom export guide covers conversations, and the customer side of those tickets may live in a CRM covered by the HubSpot export guide.