Freshservice Data Migration Checklist

To ensure a seamless Freshservice data migration, you need:

1. A clear, step-by-step guide covering each stage of the transfer.
2. A reliable solution, such as Help Desk Migration, to handle the process securely and efficiently.

Discover how to efficiently run a Freshservice Demo Migration with our detailed video guide. Follow step-by-step instructions for smooth and hassle-free transfer.

With Freshservice data migration by Help Desk Migration, you can:

• Securely move all your tickets, contacts, and support history
• Migrate knowledge base articles and custom fields accurately
• Avoid manual data entry and the risk of errors
• Minimize downtime and ensure uninterrupted support

Automate your data transfer to Freshservice and start optimizing your customer support operations. Boost team productivity, enhance service efficiency, and keep full access to your historical support data.

Before You Start Your Freshservice Data Migration

1. How to choose a date to prepare for Freshservice migration?

• Pick a day with minimal help desk activity to make the migration smooth and efficient. It’s best to choose a time when business activity is low — consider the season, month, or specific days for the migration. Performing it on weekends or during periods with minimal customer inquiries is recommended.
• Give your team enough time to prepare for Freshservice migration.
• Encourage agents to explore Freshservice or focus on closing existing tickets.

2. Get your team ready before you migrate to Freshservice

It's important to brief your agents about Freshservice import or consider delegating particular tasks, like accelerating the review of Full Data Migration results.

• Ensure the entire team is involved in the migration.
• Make sure everyone understands the current stage of the migration.
• Clarify each team member’s responsibilities.
• Complete onboarding for the new platform.
• Set a clear migration deadline.
• Explain how the migration process will proceed.
• Determine when team members can start working on the new platform.

3. How to prepare Freshservice for the data transfer?

• Before migrating data to Freshservice, ensure your account is properly set up so all fields, agents, and articles transfer smoothly.

4. How do I create fields in Freshservice?

Create custom fields manually in Freshservice

• To add custom fields in Freshservice, go to Admin → Service Management → Field Manager.
• Drag and drop a field type (such as text, dropdown, or checkbox) onto the form (e.g., Incident, Service Request, Problem, or Change).
• Customize the field by setting its label, placeholder, and other options, then save it.
• You can also create custom fields for Assets, Requesters, Departments, and other modules within their respective sections in the Admin Center.

5. What should I do just before starting the customer service data migration to Freshservice?

Take a few quick steps before launching your Demo Migration to ensure a smooth, error-free process and prevent any unwanted actions in your target Freshservice instance.

1. Turn off notifications

Disable Email Notifications and other triggers, including validation and duplicate rules. That will save you from getting a pile of notifications during the Full Data Migration.

Go to Admin > under General settings, click Email Notifications > go through all tabs and disable email notifications.

Why disable triggers before migration?

If notifications, workflows, or automations are active during migration, they may:

• Send unwanted emails to agents/customers.
• Reopen or close migrated tickets.
• Slow down or interrupt the migration process.

2. Disable priority matrix

If you have the Priority Matrix enabled during the migration, then Freshservice will set priorities according to it. Therefore, the priority statuses will differ from those in the source help desk. If it’s not a problem for you, then feel free to leave the Matrix enabled.

However, if you want to keep all priorities as they were in the source help desk, then you have to disable the Matrix before starting Demo and Full Data Migration.

Here’s how to do it:

• Open up your Freshservice account.
• Go to Admin > Priority Matrix (under Service Management).

• Toggle OFF the Enable Priority Matrix option.

Once the migration is over, you can go back to this menu and re-activate the Priority Matrix.

3. Turn off workflow automator and scenario automations

If migrating to Freshservice with active automation, disable all Workflow and Scenario automations beforehand to prevent email notices during ticket import. Here's how to do it:

1. Log in to Freshservice. Hover over the Admin panel in the left sidebar.
2. Go to Automations & Productivity.

3. Choose Workflow Automator and disable all active automation rules.

4. Open Scenario Automations and document all scenarios and afterward, delete them.

You can keep all scenarios active, but remember that even if you disable Agent Notifications, Freshservice might still send updates during the migration.

Alternatively, you can contact the Freshservice support team and ask to turn off all Requester and Agent notifications.

4. Deactivate closure rules

To prevent ticket status changes after Full Data Migration, disable Closure Rules to ensure all mapped data remains unchanged.
1. Go to the Admin panel. Scroll down to Service Management > Service Desk Settings.

2. Click on Closure Rules.

3. Disable all closure rules to prevent unexpected changes in ticket statuses. Click Save.

Note: if you have problems, turn off this feature for them too.

5. Should I disable Parent-Child ticketing?

Yes. The Parent-Child Ticketing feature in Freshservice (available on certain plans) can cause migration errors because ‘Task’-type tickets depend on linked relationships.
If this field is missing, the Migration Wizard may fail to move those records.
Steps to disable Parent-Child Ticketing:

1. Log in as an Administrator and go to Admin → Workflows → Parent-Child Ticketing.
2. Toggle the feature Off in the top-right corner.
3. Confirm the action when prompted.
4. You’ll receive a confirmation message once the feature is disabled.

6. What customizations are available?

If you have any specific requirements for Freshservice data import, contact our support team. The availability of customizations depends heavily on your source platform. Our automated data migration offers options like:

• Data filtering by different criteria (creation date, tags, custom fields, groups, organizations, assignees, etc.)
• Change of the default migration process (migration of change and problem objects as tickets, migration of ticket events as private notes, migration of the information related to inactive users, Closed At date of the ticket into the 1st private comment in a ticket, inline images as ticket attachments)
• Adding information to the migrated data (marking tickets with extra tags, adding legacy ticket ID to the ticket subject)
• Migrate contact custom fields

Step-by-Step Guide: How to Migrate to Freshservice with Help Desk Migration

Migrating your data from one Freshservice account to another doesn’t have to be complicated. With Help Desk Migration, you can securely and efficiently transfer all your tickets, users, and knowledge base articles without losing valuable information. Follow this step-by-step guide to ensure a smooth Freshservice data transfer.

1. What access credentials do I need to set up the migration?

Before starting the Demo Migration, find the required access credentials to the source platform and Freshservice.

To connect Freshservice with Migration Wizard, you need:

• URL: URL of your company's Freshservice account. Example - https://domain.freshservice.com/.
• API Key: Profile icon -> Profile Settings -> Your API Key. If you have a Freshservice account, find how to enable your API key here.

2. Set up Freshservice data import

Before setting up the Full Data Migration, try the Free Demo. In brief, Migration Wizard exports 20 random source tickets and 20 knowledge base articles to Freshservice. You can edit your Demo Migration setting and re-run your Demo. Note that you get the same Demo results with the same settings.

1. Log in to your Migration Wizard account.
2. Connect your source and target systems.

To connect Freshservice with Migration Wizard, you need:

URL: URL of your company's Freshservice account. Example - https://domain.freshservice.com/.

API Key: Profile icon -> Profile Settings -> Your API Key. If you have a Freshservice account, find how to enable your API key here.

3. Choose the data you want to import to Freshservice

After connecting your accounts, choose the specific workspace you want to migrate. You can select which data entities to transfer:
Default migration:

• Tickets
• Requesters
• Departments
• Agents
• Solutions (folders and categories)

1. Match agents.
With Help Desk Migration, you can match agents from the source platform to the target platform and reassign tickets if an agent has left the company. Matching agents are required to run the Free Demo Migration, so ensure this step is completed carefully.
On the mapping page, click ‘Match items’ next to Agents. Map existing target agents via their emails or create new ones using ‘Add the same staff on {target}'. Some help desks may require manual agent creation if API access is limited.

2. Map tickets and articles fields.

3. Choose automated options.
Help Desk Migration provides built-in, one-click migration features that can significantly improve the efficiency and accuracy of your data transfer. For a Freshservice migration, you can choose from the following automated options:

• Update cross-links between articles: Automatically update internal links between knowledge base articles during migration, ensuring all cross-references remain functional on the destination platform.
• Retain multi-company contact associations: Preserve relationships between contacts and multiple companies so all existing business associations remain intact after migration.
• Migrate time entries: Transfer agent time entries, including time spent on tickets, incidents, and service tasks, to preserve work logs and reporting data.
• Add a new tag to tickets: Automatically apply a custom tag to all migrated tickets, making it easy to identify, organize, filter, and report on migrated records.
• Select records for Demo: Test the migration with a small, customized dataset by selecting up to 20 ticket and knowledge base article IDs to preview the migration results.
• Migrate the newest records first: Import records in reverse chronological order, starting with the most recent items. This option is available for Full Migration only.
• Migrate content translations (available for supported platforms): Preserve multilingual versions of knowledge base articles and other supported content so translated information remains available after migration.
• Migrate linked issues (available when migrating from Zendesk and Jira Service Management): Preserve links between support tickets and related issues, tasks, incidents, or development work items to maintain traceability across teams.
• Migrate records associated with tickets: Transfer contacts, organizations, and other supported records linked to tickets, preserving relationships between records.
• Transfer call recordings (available for supported platforms): Migrate call recordings as ticket attachments, preserving your complete customer interaction history.
• Inline images in tickets: Migrate inline images from ticket conversations as attachments, ensuring embedded images remain accessible after migration.
• Migrate side conversations (available when migrating from Zendesk): Transfer Zendesk side conversations as private notes in the destination platform, preserving internal discussions and collaboration history.
• Skip ticket attachments: Exclude ticket attachments from the migration to reduce migration time when file attachments are not required.

4. Set up your Free Demo Migration.

Before launching your Full Migration, you can run a Free Demo Migration to see how your data will appear in the destination platform. The Demo allows you to validate your migration settings, review data mapping, and make any necessary adjustments before transferring your complete dataset.

A Demo Migration transfers a sample of your data so you can verify that everything migrates correctly before running the Full Migration. A standard Demo typically includes:

• 20 tickets
• Comments, replies, or notes associated with those tickets
• Users (agents and end users) linked to the migrated tickets
• Companies or organizations associated with those users
• Standard and custom fields
• Ticket attachments (where supported)
• A sample of knowledge base articles (if included in your migration scenario)

Rather than migrating your entire database, the Demo provides enough data to verify mapping accuracy, field placement, formatting, record relationships, and the overall data structure in your destination platform.

If you need to validate specific records, you can use the Select Records for Demo option to migrate up to 20 ticket IDs and 20 knowledge base article IDs of your choice.

For Enterprise projects or complex migration scenarios, Help Desk Migration can provide an extended Demo Migration that transfers a larger volume of data. This allows organizations to validate more records, customizations, workflows, and integrations before proceeding with the Full Migration.

How to verify Demo Results in Freshservice?

Once the Demo Migration is complete, Help Desk Migration generates detailed migration reports to help you review the results. The Reconciliation Report summarizes the number of records processed for each entity, while separate reports identify any skipped or failed records and explain why they were not migrated.

We also recommend reviewing the migrated data directly in your target platform to confirm that:

• Tickets, contacts, companies, and knowledge base articles have been migrated correctly.
• Relationships between records have been preserved.
• Comments, attachments, custom fields, and knowledge base content appear as expected.
• Formatting, permissions, and other important details meet your requirements.

What Is a Rollback Demo?

A Rollback Demo lets you remove the records imported during a Demo Migration, so you can rerun the Demo with different settings without manually cleaning up your destination platform.

This feature is available only for supported platforms. Some records cannot be deleted because removing them could affect data integrity, so they remain in the target system.

After your Demo Migration is complete, select Rollback Demo in the Migration Wizard. You'll see a list of records that can be removed before confirming the rollback. Once completed, the selected demo records (such as the migrated tickets) are deleted from the target platform, allowing you to start a new Demo with a clean slate.

Does the Demo Migration work the same as the Full Migration?

Yes. Both Demo and Full Migrations use the same logic, mapping, and configuration.
If data appears missing or incorrect in the Demo, the same issue will occur in the Full Migration — so check your results carefully.

How to verify your Demo Migration results:

• Download the Demo Migration reports.
• Review migrated, failed, and skipped records.
• Contact support if any data looks incomplete or misaligned before starting the Full Migration.

If you need more detailed information, read this guide exclusive to Freshservice.

Can I filter my help desk data before migration?

With Help Desk Migration's built-in filtering options, you can avoid migrating outdated or unnecessary data and keep your new help desk clean from day one.

• Date Created or Updated: Migrate only tickets created or updated within a specific time frame, such as the last 2–3 years. Organizations typically use this filter to meet data retention policies, legal requirements, or to keep only relevant historical records.
• Ticket Status: Exclude tickets with statuses such as Closed, Solved, or other completed states, allowing you to migrate only active or pending requests.
• Groups, Brands, or Workspaces: Migrate data for specific groups, brands (supported by platforms like Zendesk), or workspaces instead of your entire help desk. This is especially useful when migrating to platforms like Freshservice, where each workspace is migrated separately.
• Subject Line or Keywords: Exclude automated or low-value records based on subject lines or keywords, such as ‘Notification from’, ‘Automated notification’, ‘Out of Office’, or similar system-generated messages. This helps reduce unnecessary data in the target platform.

Filters help you migrate only the records you need, reducing migration time and keeping your new help desk organized. Combine multiple conditions using AND logic, meaning all selected criteria must be met for a record to be migrated. Available filters depend on your source platform's API. If you need a filter that isn't listed, contact us to discuss a custom migration setup.

What should I know while running a Full Data Migration to Freshservice?

Before launching your Full Migration:

• Verify that deleted or inactive requesters aren’t marked as “Spam” in Freshservice.
• Inline images in KB articles will migrate as file attachments.
• Make sure required custom fields for Tickets, Requesters, or Departments exist.
• Ensure you have admin rights in both source and target accounts.

Running a Full Data Migration

1. Choose your migration options

Throughout Freshservice data migration, you can work on your source help desk. Just remember, records created or updated during Full Data Migration won't show up in Freshservice. To move all new and updated customer data, consider using Delta Migration.
The Migration Wizard operates in the cloud, so there's no need to keep the tab open. You can periodically check the Full Data Migration page or wait for a message from our team.

2. Run Full Data Migration

Once you've verified the Demo Migration results, you're ready to launch your Full Freshservice Migration. Help Desk Migration transfers your records individually while preserving supported relationships, custom fields, attachments, comments, and other data.

You can start the Full Freshservice Migration as soon as your payment is confirmed or schedule it to run on a specific date and time. Scheduling is ideal for running migrations outside business hours, reducing disruption to your support team.

Choose a Support Plan

Select the support package that best matches your migration requirements:

• Standard – Best for small, straightforward migrations. Includes 9/5 email, phone, and chat support, standard SLA response times, and skipped/failed record review.
• Premium – Ideal for larger or customized migrations. Includes 16/5 priority support, weekend assistance, one re-migration, and skipped/failed record review.
• Signature – Designed for enterprise-scale projects. Includes highest-priority 16/5 support, weekend coverage, one re-migration, Delta Migration, Interval Migration, and extended data retention.
• Enterprise – A fully managed migration service with a dedicated account manager, 24/7 support, custom SLAs, Private Cloud Migration, extended Demo Migration, personalized migration planning, and tailored migration customizations.

For complex or business-critical Freshservice migrations, our Professional Services team can assist with migration planning, custom field mapping, extended Demo Migrations, migration validation, and post-migration support.

Private Cloud Migration

Organizations with strict security, compliance, or data residency requirements can choose Private Cloud Migration, which runs the migration in a dedicated environment for enhanced security and control.

Delta Migration

A Delta Migration transfers only the records that were created or updated after your Full Migration started. This keeps your destination platform synchronized without re-migrating existing records and helps minimize downtime during cutover.

Interval Migration

Interval Migration lets you pause and resume the Freshservice migration, making it possible to transfer large datasets during evenings, weekends, or other off-peak hours. It's commonly combined with Delta Migration to capture any changes made while the migration was paused.

What should I check after the Full Freshservice Data Migration?

After the migration is complete, confirm that:

• Tickets, contacts, companies, departments, and knowledge base articles are present.
• Custom fields, tags, comments, attachments, and other supported data have migrated correctly.
• Relationships between records have been preserved.
• Agent accounts, roles, and permissions are configured correctly.
• Workflows, automations, and business rules function as expected.
• No records are missing, incomplete, or duplicated.

How Long Does a Full Migration Take?

Migration time depends on your data volume, attachments, platform API performance, and any custom migration options. Smaller migrations may complete in 20–30 minutes, while larger or more complex projects can take several hours or a few days. You can monitor progress in real time from the Migration Wizard.

Freshservice Migration Scenarios

With Help Desk Migration, you can perform data transfers such as:

1. From your existing help desk platform to Freshservice

• (The most popular migration pairs include Zendesk to Freshservice, ServiceNow to Freshservice, Zoho Desk to Freshservice, and Freshdesk to Freshservice.)

2. From CSV files to Freshservice
3. From Gmail to Freshservice