Migrate Your Email Support

Converge Team

• Updated March 12, 2026

How to migrate your email support workflows, templates, and history from Zendesk without losing data.

Migrating Email Support from Zendesk

Zendesk's email channel works via forwarding: you forward incoming mail from your existing support email (e.g., [email protected]) to your Zendesk address ([email protected]). This forwarding-based setup makes migration straightforward — you redirect the forwarding rule to your new platform.

How Zendesk Handles Email

Zendesk creates tickets from incoming emails to your support address. Each email reply becomes a ticket comment. Zendesk supports multiple support email addresses (e.g., support@, billing@, sales@), each mapped to a different group or brand. Outgoing replies are sent from Zendesk's mail servers, optionally using your custom domain via SPF/DKIM DNS records.

Step 1: Document Your Email Setup

Before switching, note all support email addresses connected to Zendesk (check Admin Center > Channels > Email). Record which groups or brands each address routes to, and whether you've set up custom SPF/DKIM DNS records for outbound email delivery. Also document any email-specific triggers (like auto-responses to certain email addresses or subject lines).

Step 2: Update Email Forwarding

In your email provider (Gmail, Microsoft 365, etc.), change the forwarding destination from your Zendesk address to your new platform's inbound address. If you set up MX records pointing directly to Zendesk, update those DNS records to point to your new platform instead. The DNS propagation can take up to 48 hours, so plan accordingly.

Step 3: Migrate Templates and Macros

Zendesk macros (canned responses applied to tickets) need to be manually recreated. Copy the text content of your most-used macros from Admin Center > Workspaces > Agent tools > Macros and recreate them as Quick Replies or templates in your new platform. Pay attention to placeholder variables — Zendesk uses {{ticket.requester.name}} syntax that will need to be mapped to your new platform's variable format.

Step 4: Clean Up DNS Records

After confirming your new platform receives email correctly, remove Zendesk-specific SPF and DKIM DNS records (usually TXT records referencing zendesk.com or mail.zendesk.com). Add your new platform's required DNS records for outbound email authentication.

Note: Any open tickets in Zendesk won't automatically transfer. Resolve or close outstanding email tickets in Zendesk before switching, or keep Zendesk active briefly to handle open conversations while routing new emails to your new platform.