How to recover suspended tickets automatically in Zendesk

To recover suspended tickets automatically in Zendesk, install Winnowell, write a Recover or Recover with a requester rule for the emails that should never wait, tick Run automatically on it, and turn on Automatic recovery in the app settings. While at least one person with Winnowell has Zendesk open, it checks the queue every 15 minutes (or your interval) and recovers what those rules decide. It never deletes, and each pass is logged.

Steps

1. Write the rule. In Rules, add conditions for the emails you want back, such as sender domain is one of your customers' domains, or message text contains a word your legal team watches.
2. Pick the action. Recover keeps the original sender as requester. Recover with a requester is for emails Zendesk won't recover as they are, such as "Received from support address".
3. Add tags. Every recovered ticket gets the app's tag (default winnowell_recovered); a rule can add its own, such as legal_review, so a trigger routes the ticket.
4. Test it. Run Run rules (dry run first) once and check what the rule would recover.
5. Tick Run automatically on the rule.
6. Turn on Automatic recovery in the app settings (Admin Center > Apps and integrations > Apps > Zendesk Support apps > Winnowell) and set minutes between automatic runs (5 to 240, default 15).

How automatic passes work

Nothing runs while nobody has Zendesk open. Zendesk deletes unrecovered suspended tickets after 14 days, so still review the queue at least weekly.

Good rules to automate

• Customer domains. Sender domain is one of your top accounts' domains: recover.
• Watch words. Message text contains "arbitration" or "chargeback": recover and tag for the right team.
• Forwarded mail. Cause of suspension is "Received from support address": recover with a requester.
• A loop you trust. Cause of suspension plus a known sender domain, for systems that send automated mail you need.

Where recovered tickets go

Zendesk's Viewing, recovering, and deleting suspended tickets says recovered tickets come back unassigned with a New status, so they appear in views of unassigned tickets. Use the rule's tags in triggers to assign or route them.

Check what it did

Open History for the runs and their log tickets. The daily log ticket lists every email recovered automatically with its sender, subject, cause, rule, outcome and new ticket number.

Who can change the rules

Agents can edit rules is off by default, so only admins change rules; agents can still run them. Limit the app itself under Role restrictions to the people who review suspended tickets.

What it costs

Winnowell is billed monthly by Zendesk per account: Team $99 (up to 100 rules), Professional $199 (up to 250) or Enterprise $349 (up to 5,000), with a 14-day trial; automatic recovery is in every plan. The Winnowell documentation has every setting.