How to migrate help desk data
without losing anything

Export a record count from your current platform: how many tickets, users, organizations, attachments. Know the exact volume before you start — this is your migration baseline and your quality check after it's done.

Custom fields almost never map 1:1 between platforms. Create a spreadsheet: source field name → destination field name → data type. Decide what to drop, what to merge, and what needs to be created fresh in the destination.

Never skip the demo migration. A demo on your real data tells you whether attachments come through, whether custom fields map correctly, and whether internal notes are preserved. If your vendor doesn't offer a free demo, that's a red flag.

Request the vendor's SOC 2 Type II report and GDPR Data Processing Agreement before the project starts. If your customers are EU-based, a DPA is legally required. If your vendor hesitates to provide these, stop.

New tickets and replies will keep coming in while migration runs. Do not lock your source system during this phase. Instead, plan for a delta migration to sync those new records after the initial migration completes.

Watch the migration logs as they run. Note any skipped records, failed imports, or field mapping errors immediately. Don't wait for the final report — catching issues early means you can fix them before they compound.

Before running the full migration, pick 20–50 representative tickets — open, closed, tickets with attachments, tickets with internal notes — and verify each one manually in the destination. This is your quality gate.

After the main migration finishes, run a delta sync to pull in any tickets, replies, or updates created since the migration started. This is the only way to achieve a clean cutover without a blackout window.

Total tickets migrated should match your pre-migration audit. If the numbers don't match, check the skip/fail log for reasons. Common causes: duplicate detection, rate limits, or unsupported attachment types.

Only after the record count matches and your sample validation passes, redirect your support team to the destination platform. Update any email routing, widget scripts, and API integrations that point to the old system.