At some point, you’ll find that your Zendesk data becomes unnecessary to keep. It could be because of GDPR (EU) regulations, CCPA (California) requirements, or simply due to limited storage space. When you reach these limits, it’s important to remove the data accordingly.
In Zendesk, tickets are the main object. Everything revolves around them. This step-by-step guide helps you to calculate and delete data (tickets and associated objects, such as users and attachments) to reduce your data usage in Zendesk.
Steps to take
- Find your ticket volume spread over time
- Calculate the average data size per ticket
- Select which queries to delete
Step 1. Find your ticket volume spread over time
To start, use a search query to find the number of tickets for each year. For example, the following search query will show you tickets created in the year 2022:
created>2021-12-31 created<2023-01-01
Tip: Begin with the dates from the first year you started using Zendesk. Use the table below to track the ticket volume for each year.
| Description | Query | Volume |
|---|---|---|
| All tickets created in 2023 | created>2022-12-31 created<2024-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2022 | created>2021-12-31 created<2023-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2021 | created>2020-12-31 created<2022-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2020 | created>2019-12-31 created<2021-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2019 | created>2018-12-31 created<2020-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2018 | created>2017-12-31 created<2019-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2017 | created>2016-12-31 created<2018-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2016 | created>2015-12-31 created<2017-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2015 | created>2014-12-31 created<2016-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2014 | created>2013-12-31 created<2015-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2013 | created>2012-12-31 created<2014-01-01 |
|
| All tickets created in 2012 | created>2011-12-31 created<2013-01-01 |
Step 2. Calculate the average data size per ticket
Currently, Zendesk doesn’t provide a way to get the data size yourself. However, your Zendesk Sales Rep has this information available.
The information is structured like this:
- Data limit (GB)
- Data size (GB)
- Data size remaining (GB)
- File limit (GB)
- File size (GB)
- File size remaining (GB)
The data size (GB) and file size (GB) are required to calculate the average data size per ticket.
- Avg Ticket size (GB) = Data size (GB) / Total number of tickets
- Avg File size (GB) = File size (GB) / Total number of tickets
Depending on which limit you’re exceeding, you can choose either Avg Ticket size or Avg File size.
Now, for each year, you already know the number of tickets. The next step is to multiply the amount for each year with the average size.
According to Zendesk (2021, source): “Regarding your earlier questions, we began implementing data storage limits in June 2020 (when this article was first published). We are rolling out stages of enforcement, and will not enforce broadly until it is available for customers to observe in the product. All enforcement will be done in good faith and in cooperation with customers affected.”
Step 3. Select the years to delete
To reduce your data usage, delete the amount of GB that equals the “Data size remaining (GB)” or “File size remaining (GB)”. Tip: Include a bit extra for safety. Select the years that sum up to that amount and include an additional year.
As you’ve calculated which years to delete, all you have to do is add the queries in an app like GDPR: Search & Destroy. Your data usage will shrink.
💡 Keep in mind: Deleting tickets in Zendesk is permanent. There’s no way to recover them once they’re deleted.