# How do customer support ticket history and case notes (from the old helpdesk) get linked to migrated customer records in the new Gorgias/Zendesk-Shopify setup?

Reviewed by Martin Dejnicki, Director of SEO & AI Search · facts verified October 11, 2026 · canonical: https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/support-ticket-history-migration-gorgias-zendesk

## Short answer

Helpdesk history links to migrated Shopify customers by email address, not customer ID, so an email changed in migration orphans tickets. Gorgias links tickets "by the contact email address" ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/review-customer-history-in-gorgias-2390890), October 2026), and its shipping-address phone match is off by default ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/match-customer-by-shopify-default-address-phone-number-817174)). Zendesk matches the requester's email or phone ([Zendesk Help](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408837984026-Using-the-Shopify-integration-in-Support-and-Chat), October 2026).

- **Gorgias match key:** Contact email; default-address phone match is opt-in. Gorgias links timeline tickets by the contact's email. Matching on a Shopify default-address phone is off by default and doesn't reach existing profiles retroactively (October 2026) ([Gorgias Help Center, Review customer history in Gorgias](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/review-customer-history-in-gorgias-2390890); [Gorgias Help Center, Match Customer by Shopify Default Address Phone Number](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/match-customer-by-shopify-default-address-phone-number-817174))
- **Zendesk match key:** Requester email or phone, on saved tickets. Shopify for Zendesk shows no Shopify data on a new ticket until it's saved with a requester; it runs on every Suite plan, or on Support with Chat (October 2026) ([Zendesk Help, Using the Shopify integration in Support and Chat](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408837984026-Using-the-Shopify-integration-in-Support-and-Chat))
- **Gorgias import from Zendesk:** Two years of tickets, every Helpdesk plan. Pending and solved tickets arrive closed, tickets over 250 comments split, and attachments and satisfaction ratings stay behind; about 720 tickets an hour (October 2026) ([Gorgias Help Center, Import Zendesk data into Gorgias](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/import-zendesk-data-into-gorgias-214412); [Gorgias Help Center, Zendesk migration 101](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/zendesk-migration-101-214413))
- **Importing into Zendesk:** Ticket Import API, not the interface. An import can set each ticket's original created, updated and solved timestamps, but imported tickets get no reply-time metrics or service targets, and triggers don't run on them (October 2026) ([Zendesk Help, How can I migrate information from another platform into Zendesk?](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6696005837082-How-can-I-migrate-information-from-another-platform-into-Zendesk); [Zendesk Developer Docs, Ticket Import](https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/tickets/ticket_import/))

## Deploi's call

The email address is the join key for everything downstream of a customer migration, and it deserves to be treated as a primary key rather than a contact detail. Freeze it, normalize it, and map it before anything else moves.

**CUSTOMIZE: Re-point the helpdesk you already run when**

- Only the store moves: once connected, Gorgias imports the new store's Shopify customer profiles and order history in the background ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/connect-shopify-to-gorgias-81814), October 2026).
- Customer emails come through deduplication unchanged, because Gorgias links tickets by the contact email address ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/review-customer-history-in-gorgias-2390890), October 2026).
- On Zendesk, the requester's email or phone matches the new store's customer record ([Zendesk Help](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408837984026-Using-the-Shopify-integration-in-Support-and-Chat), October 2026).

**BUY: Import the old helpdesk's tickets when**

- You move from Zendesk to Gorgias, whose import carries two years of tickets on every Helpdesk plan and then keeps syncing ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/import-zendesk-data-into-gorgias-214412), October 2026).
- Agents use history older than ninety days. [Deploi's Gorgias vs. Zendesk record](https://deploi.ca/shopify/build-vs-buy/gorgias-vs-zendesk) finds that conversation history usually exports while macros, triggers and views rebuild by hand (October 2026). Gorgias's own import brings active macros, but a macro with any action beyond reply text or a status change arrives with no actions ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/import-zendesk-data-into-gorgias-214412)).
- Zendesk is the destination and someone owns the import, through its Ticket Import application programming interface (API) or a Marketplace app or partner Zendesk names ([Zendesk Help](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6696005837082-How-can-I-migrate-information-from-another-platform-into-Zendesk), October 2026).

## How does helpdesk history find a migrated Shopify customer?

Helpdesk history finds a migrated Shopify customer by matching an email address, not by carrying a customer ID across. Gorgias says tickets in a customer timeline "are linked by the contact email address provided by your customer" ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/review-customer-history-in-gorgias-2390890), October 2026). Zendesk's Shopify integration matches "the ticket requester's email address or phone number" to the Shopify account, and only on saved tickets ([Zendesk Help](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408837984026-Using-the-Shopify-integration-in-Support-and-Chat), October 2026).

Gorgias's default-address phone match is narrower. It reads the phone on a customer's default Shopify shipping address and stays off until an admin turns it on. "Existing profiles will not retroactively match" ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/match-customer-by-shopify-default-address-phone-number-817174), October 2026).

Customer-level case notes ride the same link: Gorgias keeps its customer note in sync with the Shopify customer note ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/connect-shopify-to-gorgias-81814), October 2026). The sync skips customers with profiles in more than one Shopify store.

So the link is fragile in one place: any step in [migrating customer records and their metadata](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/b2b-net-terms-history-credit-limits-migration) that changes an email address breaks it silently. Deduplication that merges two accounts onto one address, domain changes, plus-address normalization and inconsistent case each orphan a slice of ticket history. Nothing raises an error. An agent opens a ticket and sees no order history.

## What does a Zendesk-to-Gorgias import carry?

A Zendesk-to-Gorgias import carries tickets, macros, users, tags and ticket fields, on every Gorgias Helpdesk plan ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/import-zendesk-data-into-gorgias-214412), October 2026). Its limits are tighter than most teams assume:

- "Up to two years of your most recent data can be imported," with the latest 14 days first.
- Deleted and blank tickets stay behind, and a ticket with more than 250 comments splits into several closed tickets.
- "Pending and solved tickets from Zendesk will be imported as closed, and all other statuses will be imported as open."
- Users with no ticket activity, and tags on no imported ticket, stay behind.
- Above 500 ticket fields, no ticket fields import at all.

Gorgias's migration guide adds that it doesn't import "attachments on tickets nor rating information" ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/zendesk-migration-101-214413), October 2026). It moves about 720 tickets an hour. Gorgias tags imported pending tickets so a view can find them, but reports built on Zendesk's other statuses don't survive.

> **Gorgias's pages disagree on on-hold tickets**
> Gorgias's import page says pending and solved tickets arrive closed and "all other statuses will be imported as open", which brings on-hold tickets in open ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/import-zendesk-data-into-gorgias-214412)). Its migration guide says "On-hold, Solved, and Closed Zendesk tickets will all be imported as Closed Gorgias tickets" ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/zendesk-migration-101-214413)). Check a few on-hold tickets after the first import.

## How do tickets get into Zendesk, or out of it?

Tickets get into Zendesk through its Ticket Import application programming interface (API), because Zendesk says you "can't migrate everything into Zendesk through the user interface" ([Zendesk Help](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6696005837082-How-can-I-migrate-information-from-another-platform-into-Zendesk), October 2026). An import can set each ticket's original created, updated and solved timestamps. Triggers don't run on it unless it's updated later, and Zendesk says its metrics and service level agreements (SLAs) "are not supported for imported tickets" ([Zendesk Developer Docs](https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/tickets/ticket_import/), October 2026). Closed tickets can go straight to the archive.

Getting history out of Zendesk has its own gate. Zendesk's export tools need a Suite Growth or Support Professional plan or higher, and "data exports are not enabled by default in Zendesk accounts" ([Zendesk Help](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886165402-Exporting-ticket-user-or-organization-data-from-your-account), October 2026). The account owner asks Zendesk Customer Support to turn them on, and Team plans export only through the API. So ask before the renewal date, not after it.

## Do the store migration and the helpdesk migration have to happen together?

The store migration and the helpdesk migration don't have to happen together, and in our experience running them in the same weekend is the most common mistake. They change different systems, so each has its own risk.

**Each migration scenario carries a different risk, and only a helpdesk change imports tickets**

| Scenario | What has to happen | Where the risk sits |
| --- | --- | --- |
| New platform, same helpdesk | The helpdesk connects to the new Shopify store and re-matches tickets on email | Email-address stability |
| Same platform, new helpdesk | Tickets import under the vendor's limits; Gorgias imports from Zendesk, or two years of email on Basic and up | The import's limits |
| Both change at once | Sequence them, store first | Two cutovers hiding each other's failures |

Sources: [Gorgias Help Center, Connect a store to Gorgias: Shopify](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/connect-shopify-to-gorgias-81814); [Gorgias Help Center, Import Zendesk data into Gorgias](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/import-zendesk-data-into-gorgias-214412); [Gorgias Help Center, Email: Import email into Gorgias](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/import-emails-into-gorgias-2130062); [Zendesk Help, Using the Shopify integration in Support and Chat](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408837984026-Using-the-Shopify-integration-in-Support-and-Chat). Verified October 11, 2026.

That last row is the advice that saves the most pain and, in our experience, the one teams skip most, usually because both contracts renew in the same quarter. If you're choosing the destination too, [the Gorgias vs. Zendesk decision](https://deploi.ca/shopify/faq/gorgias-vs-zendesk-helpdesk) comes first.

## In what order should you protect the ticket-to-customer link?

Protect the ticket-to-customer link in six steps, deduplication first, because every later step depends on email addresses that no longer change.

1. **Freeze email-address changes before the helpdesk cutover.** Shopify's customer import keeps only the last profile that shares an email address or phone number ([Shopify Help Center](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/customers/import-export-customers), October 2026), so merge accounts first. Gorgias says to merge in Shopify first, then in Gorgias ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/review-customer-history-in-gorgias-2390890)).
1. **Export a map of email to legacy customer ID** and archive it. When an orphaned ticket turns up in month four, this file is the only way home.
1. **Normalize email case and whitespace on both sides** with the same rule.
1. **Put each phone number on the Shopify customer record.** By default Gorgias reads a Shopify phone from the customer overview, not the address ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/shopify-faqs-81985)). Its opt-in address match merges every profile sharing a phone, so skip it if your own number sits on addresses ([Gorgias Help Center](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/match-customer-by-shopify-default-address-phone-number-817174)).
1. **Sample-test fifty customers** across new, long-standing and high-ticket-count accounts, and confirm each shows order history in the ticket view.
1. **Archive what the import won't carry** before you cancel the old tool, because the tool won't be there later.

## When should you not import ticket history?

Don't import ticket history when agents never look that far back, or when the import would break statuses your workflows need. Don't run it in the same week as the store cutover either, because two cutovers hide each other's failures.

> **When not to do this**
> - **When your agents don't look back beyond ninety days.** In our experience most don't. An archive and a search tool serve the rare case at a fraction of the cost and risk.
> - **When the import would collapse statuses your workflows depend on.** Better to keep the old tool read-only for a quarter than to import a broken status model into the system your team uses daily.
> - **When the two cutovers would land in the same week.** Reschedule one.

## Deploi's point of view

**What we've seen.** Orphaned ticket history is almost never caused by the helpdesk. It is caused by a customer-deduplication step earlier in the same program that nobody thought of as a support-facing change.

**Where we disagree.** Helpdesk migration is usually scoped by the CS team alone, as a tooling swap. It is a data-integrity dependency on the commerce migration, and it belongs on the same critical path with the same owner, because the failure is invisible until an agent hits it in front of a customer.

**What this page adds.** The parent answer moves wholesale credit data into Shopify fields. This page shows that the helpdesk-to-Shopify link is rebuilt by email matching rather than migrated, that Gorgias's default-address phone fallback is opt-in, and that a Zendesk-to-Gorgias import caps at two years, collapses pending and solved into closed, and drops ticket fields entirely above 500 of them.

## When this answer changes

- Gorgias changes its Zendesk import's two-year window, its status mapping or its 500-field limit.
- Gorgias turns its default-address phone match on by default, or lets it match existing profiles retroactively.
- Zendesk adds a ticket importer to its interface, or opens its export tools to Team plans.
- Zendesk's Shopify integration changes how it matches a ticket requester to a Shopify customer.
- Shopify changes how its customer import handles duplicate email addresses or phone numbers.

## Sources

1. [Gorgias Help Center, Review customer history in Gorgias](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/review-customer-history-in-gorgias-2390890), checked October 11, 2026
2. [Gorgias Help Center, Match Customer by Shopify Default Address Phone Number](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/match-customer-by-shopify-default-address-phone-number-817174), checked October 11, 2026
3. [Gorgias Help Center, Shopify FAQs](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/shopify-faqs-81985), checked October 11, 2026
4. [Gorgias Help Center, Connect a store to Gorgias: Shopify](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/connect-shopify-to-gorgias-81814), checked October 11, 2026
5. [Gorgias Help Center, Import Zendesk data into Gorgias](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/import-zendesk-data-into-gorgias-214412), checked October 11, 2026
6. [Gorgias Help Center, Zendesk migration 101](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/zendesk-migration-101-214413), checked October 11, 2026
7. [Gorgias Help Center, Email: Import email into Gorgias](https://docs.gorgias.com/en-US/import-emails-into-gorgias-2130062), checked October 11, 2026
8. [Zendesk Help, Using the Shopify integration in Support and Chat](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408837984026-Using-the-Shopify-integration-in-Support-and-Chat), checked October 11, 2026
9. [Zendesk Help, How can I migrate information from another platform into Zendesk?](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/6696005837082-How-can-I-migrate-information-from-another-platform-into-Zendesk), checked October 11, 2026
10. [Zendesk Developer Docs, Ticket Import](https://developer.zendesk.com/api-reference/ticketing/tickets/ticket_import/), checked October 11, 2026
11. [Zendesk Help, Exporting ticket, user, or organization data from your account](https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408886165402-Exporting-ticket-user-or-organization-data-from-your-account), checked October 11, 2026
12. [Shopify Help Center, Importing and exporting customer lists](https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/customers/import-export-customers), checked October 11, 2026
13. [Deploi Build vs. Buy, Gorgias vs. Zendesk: Ecommerce-Native or Horizontal Helpdesk?](https://deploi.ca/shopify/build-vs-buy/gorgias-vs-zendesk), checked October 11, 2026, Deploi research