Hi Freshworks Community!
Migrating to Freshdesk can be a huge step forward for your support team—but only if it’s done right.
Here are the top 5 migration pitfalls—and what to do instead 👇
1️⃣ Migrating without cleaning up old data
The mistake: Migrating broken, outdated, or half-filled records—spam tickets, soft-deleted contacts, or misconfigured canned responses and automations.
Why it hurts: These records can cause migration failures or unexpected results. For example, tickets linked to soft-deleted contacts end up in the Spam folder.
How to avoid it:
- Clean your data before migrating.
- Reactivating or removing 50–100 records now is far easier than fixing issues across 60,000 later.
2️⃣ Not setting up Freshdesk properly first
The mistake: Starting the migration before Freshdesk is fully configured.
Why it hurts: If features like the Help Center, custom fields, agents, or canned responses aren’t set up, that data can’t migrate correctly.
How to avoid it:
- Activate the Help Center (for knowledge base migration)
- Create required custom fields, agent profiles, scenario autiomations, and canned responses
👉 If you use Help Desk Migration, agents and custom fields can be created automatically during mapping.
3️⃣ Skipping test (demo) migrations
The mistake: Running a full migration without testing first.
Why it hurts: You won’t see how tickets, descriptions, comments, agents, or companies appear until it’s too late.
How to avoid it:
- Always run test migrations to validate:
- Fix issues before the full run.
4️⃣ Misunderstanding agent, contact, and company matching
The mistake: Assuming existing users and records will update automatically.
Why it hurts: Contacts are matched by email and companies by name—but their custom fields aren’t updated. Agents are created without group access unless mapped via tickets.
How to avoid it: Review matching rules in advance and verify them during test migrations.
5️⃣ Leaving automations enabled during migration
The mistake: Keeping triggers, scenarios, or parent–child ticketing active.
Why it hurts: Automations can modify migrated data—changing assignments, statuses, or notifications unexpectedly.
How to avoid it: Disable automations before migration and re-enable them only after data is reviewed.
👉 What migration challenges have you run into with Freshdesk? Let’s share lessons learned.
