When a customer replies to a ticket that is already closed, initdesk usually reopens the same ticket. This article explains what happens on each channel and what your team sees.

Closed and resolved are the same

• A ticket has one of three statuses: created, active, or closed.
• Resolved is not a separate status. It is a reason recorded when a ticket is closed.
• A resolved ticket behaves exactly like a closed one. Everything below applies to both.

Email

• When a customer replies to a closed ticket, the same ticket reopens automatically.
• The ticket becomes active and waiting on associate (your team).
• There is no time limit and no setting for this.
• The full history stays in one ticket.

Why it works this way. Customers usually can't see the ticket status. Replying to the email thread is the natural thing to do. We treat that reply as a sign that the customer still needs help, instead of starting a new ticket.

When a new ticket is created instead

• If the reply can't be matched to an existing ticket, initdesk creates a new ticket. For example, the customer writes a fresh email instead of replying.
• A reply to a ticket that was merged goes to the ticket it was merged into. See Merge duplicate tickets.

WhatsApp and Telegram

A customer message to a closed ticket reopens it only when both of these are true:

• The message arrives within the conversation window.
• The connection setting to reopen closed tickets within the window is on. It is on by default.

The conversation window:

Outside the window, or with the setting off, initdesk creates a new ticket. If your team sent a message recently, the conversation still continues on the same ticket.

What happens when a ticket reopens

• Assignee: stays the same.
• Notifications: associates get the usual customer-replied notification. That is the assignee, or everyone with inbox access if the ticket is unassigned. Each person's notification settings apply. See Notifications.
• Auto-reply: none is sent. Auto-replies only go out when a ticket is created. See Auto-reply to new tickets.
• Webhooks: ticket.changed_status and ticket.customer_replied fire. There is no separate ticket.reopened event. See Setting up webhooks.

Reopen a ticket yourself

Associates can also reopen a closed ticket. Open the ticket and press:

• A to reopen it as waiting on associate
• C to reopen it as waiting on customer

These shortcuts work on closed tickets only. See Keyboard shortcuts.

Related articles

• How to manage tickets
• Channels
• Merge duplicate tickets
• Setting up webhooks

Questions?

If a reply did not reopen the ticket you expected, tell us the inbox, the channel, and the ticket number, using Open a ticket at the bottom of this page.