In Zendesk, tickets can be affected by several system conditions that impact whether or how they are processed (e.g., Suspended Tickets, Out of Office, and other related statuses or handling reasons).
Suspended Tickets
A suspended ticket is an inbound message (typically an email) that Zendesk places into a suspended state instead of converting it into an active ticket.
In most cases, when an end user submits a support request via email, the email is either converted into a new ticket or added as a comment to an existing ticket. In certain cases, the email may be suspended. Suspending an email means putting it aside for further review. It's not necessarily spam, but it's not a ticket in Support yet. It remains in limbo until somebody reviews it and decides whether to accept or reject it.
Suspended emails are collected in a system-generated view. The suspended tickets view is visible to any agent with access to all tickets.
Common Reasons:
- Spam or spoofed email (e.g., email fails authentication checks like SPF or DKIM)
- Automated responses (like out-of-office replies or mail delivery failures)
- Unrecognised email addresses (e.g., sent to a deprecated support address)
- Loop protection (repeated auto-responses or bounce backs between systems)
Where to find them:
- Admin or agents with permission can find suspended tickets under:
- In Support, click Views (
) in the sidebar. - Click Suspended tickets, and this allows you to manage the suspended tickets. You can view detailed information for each, including the reason for suspension, and then recover or delete them.
- In Support, click Views (
Take Action on Suspended Tickets
Admins/Agents can:
- Delete (if confirmed spam or unnecessary)
- Recover Manually (the manual recovery option allows you to edit the ticket properties first and then recover the ticket)
- Recover Automatically (automatic recovery option immediately recovers the ticket)
Out of Office (OOO)
Out of Office typically refers to either...
-
Agent status: To prevent ticket assignment to agents who are not available, Zendesk doesn't have a built-in OOO status for agents, but you can use Custom fields/triggers to route around unavailable agents
- End-user auto-responses: These are often suspended to prevent clogging the ticket queue with automated replies.
Other Reasons for Ticket Handling Changes
| Reason | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Email Loop Protection | Zendesk detects email loops and suspends repeated replies. |
| Blacklisted/Unverified Senders | Messages from these sources can be blocked or suspended. |
| Custom Triggers/Automations | May reassign, close, or reclassify tickets based on conditions. |
| Failed DMARC/SPF/DKIM Checks | Indicates sender’s domain may be spoofed; often leads to suspension. |
| Non-Support Addresses | If email is sent to an address not configured for Zendesk, it may suspend. |
| Disallowed Attachments | Messages with certain file types may be suspended or rejected. |
Best Practices
- Regularly review suspended tickets to catch false positives.
- Whitelist trusted domains to reduce unnecessary suspensions.
- Train agents to understand OOO behaviour and avoid reassignments to absent staff.
- Use triggers and automations to route tickets away from OOO agents and handle exceptions cleanly.
For additional information on using ticket handling changes, please review the following Zendesk Help support articles:
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