How to undo a user merge in Zendesk

Zendesk can't undo a user merge: the merged profile is deleted and its tags, notes and user fields are gone. If you merge with Twinmend, a snapshot of the merged profile is saved in your Zendesk first. Open History, pick the merge and click Undo (best effort). Twinmend shows what it can restore, then Recreate makes the customer again as a new end user and moves their emails, phone numbers and open tickets back.

What a Zendesk merge keeps and drops

Zendesk's Merging a user's duplicate account says a merge can't be undone, that the merging user loses all data except tickets and email identities, and that the account is queued for permanent deletion. Requester changes on tickets appear in the ticket events but don't fire triggers.

Twinmend's Dry run lists exactly this for every merge before you confirm:

Steps to undo a merge

1. Open History in Twinmend. Every merge made with Twinmend is listed with who, when, the score, the reason and the snapshot.
2. Click Undo (best effort) on the merge. Twinmend first shows exactly what it can and can't do.
3. Click Recreate. Twinmend:
   • creates the merged customer again as a new end user with the name, tags, notes, details, user fields, time zone and language from the snapshot, tagged twinmend_restored,
   • moves their email addresses and phone numbers from the kept user back to them,
   • puts them back in their organizations and takes the kept user out of organizations the merge added,
   • makes them the requester of their tickets that are still open.
4. Read the report. It is saved on the Twinmend record.

Making them requester again is a normal ticket update, so your triggers run on it.

What can't come back

• The original user id. Links to the old profile stop working.
• Tickets that are closed, because Zendesk locks them.
• CCs, Help Center activity, sign-in and the profile picture.
• Social or messaging identities.
• An email address that became the kept user's primary email stays there.

Avoid needing an undo

• Run the dry run every time. It also flags merges Zendesk will refuse: agents and admins, users with more than 10,000 requested tickets, users from a ticket sharing agreement, and users with an external ID when JWT or SAML single sign-on is on.
• Use Not duplicates. Pairs you mark as different people are never suggested again.
• Review big groups one by one. Groups above the bulk limit can't go into a bulk merge.

Snapshots and privacy

Snapshots are personal data of the merged customer, kept in your Zendesk as "Twinmend record" records for Keep merge snapshots for (days) (365 by default). Delete N older than ... days in History removes old ones. When you handle an erasure request, delete that customer's Twinmend records as well, because Zendesk's user deletion doesn't reach custom object records.

What it costs

Twinmend is billed monthly by Zendesk per account: Team $49 (up to 15 agents and admins), Growth $129 (up to 50), Business $379 (up to 150), or Enterprise at $2.75 per agent a month above 150. 14-day trial. See the Twinmend documentation for the full undo rules.