Hi, the Freshworks community!
Migrating your knowledge base to Freshdesk or Freshservice? Here's what to know before you start.
Your knowledge base is a core part of support. Customers use it to self-serve. Agents use it to answer faster. A messy migration means rebuilding content, broken links, and lost search visibility. Getting it right the first time saves hours.
Why it matters
Your knowledge base is more than just articles. It directly affects:
- Search visibility and SEO value
- Customer self-service continuity
- Agent efficiency — familiar resources stay in place
- Time saved — no rebuilding content from scratch
What you can migrate
A structured migration moves more than just articles. You can transfer:
- Help articles with full content and formatting
- Categories, folders, and hierarchy
- Article status — published, draft, or archived
- Attachments and embedded media
- Language versions and internal cross-links
Two ways to migrate
1. Native Freshdesk import (CSV)
Freshdesk offers a basic import option. Prepare your content in a CSV file and send it to support@freshdesk.com. A Freshdesk agent reviews the data and assists with the import. This works for simple structures and smaller datasets.
For more complex knowledge bases, Help Desk Migration automates the transfer. It moves articles, categories, folders, attachments, formatting, language versions, and cross-links between articles. Less manual work. Less risk of content loss.
Before you start — a short checklist
- Create at least one category and one folder in Freshdesk or Freshservice first
- Add the languages you need in Solutions before migrating multilingual content
- Clean up outdated or duplicate articles in your source platform
- Map out how your current structure translates into Freshdesk or Freshservice
- Run a test batch before the full migration
Two things worth knowing about Help Desk Migration
Multilingual content — The tool automatically migrates language versions if both platforms support multiple languages. One condition: all language versions must share the same article ID. If IDs differ, only the default language version transfers.
Cross-links between articles — The tool updates internal links automatically during migration. It rewrites domain references and aligns article IDs with the target platform. Useful when your knowledge base has a lot of interlinked content.
Why attachments in unpublished articles won't show after migration
This one catches a lot of teams off guard. If you migrate articles in draft or unpublished status, their attachments won't be visible in Freshdesk afterward.
Here's why: Freshdesk runs on AWS servers. Attachments are stored in AWS only after an article is published. Since the API only accesses the Freshdesk database on AWS, it can't access attachments associated with unpublished articles — they simply aren't there yet.
The fix is straightforward: publish articles before migration if attachments need to be transferred. After migration, you can set them back to draft.
Have you migrated a knowledge base to Freshdesk or Freshservice? What was the hardest part to get right?
