Import history from Zendesk and Gorgias

If you are switching from Zendesk or Gorgias, you can bring your history with you. Nemma fetches the cases and messages and puts them in an archive: you can search and read them, but not reply to them. The import is there to give you an overview when a customer writes again and you want to see what was said earlier.

Only the owner can import. You find it under Settings → Import (the Shop and data group). There is one card per source, Zendesk and Gorgias.

What does not happen

The import is built so that old customer correspondence never comes back to life:

• An email is never sent to a customer who wrote a long time ago.
• The AI does not sort or write drafts for imported cases, and no acknowledgement or out-of-office reply is sent.
• Nothing is changed in Zendesk or Gorgias. Nemma uses the key to read.
• Imported cases do not count in Insights, and they do not count as AI replies in your price, because there is no draft that can be sent.
• If a customer writes again, it becomes a new case in the Inbox. The message is never added to an old, imported case.

What you need

• A user in the old system who may create an API key. In Zendesk this has to be an administrator.
• Your subdomain. If your address is yourshop.zendesk.com or yourshop.gorgias.com, the subdomain is yourshop. You can also paste the whole address, and Nemma takes the first part.
• The email you log in with in the old system.
• An API key for that email. The key must belong to the same user as the email.

Find the key in Zendesk

Go to Admin Center → Apps and integrations → APIs → Zendesk API → Add API token. Only an administrator can create it, and API token access must be switched on. Nemma says in the app that Zendesk is phasing out API tokens, so they stop working on 30 April 2027 at the latest. For an import you run now, that makes no difference.

Find the key in Gorgias

Go to Settings → REST API and use the API key from there.

Connect the source

1. Open Settings → Import and click Connect Zendesk (or Connect Gorgias) in the card.
2. Fill in Subdomain, Email and API token (in Gorgias the field is called API key), and click Connect Zendesk.
3. Nemma tests the key with a real call before it saves it. If it works, it says the source is connected, and the card shows Connected with your address.

The key is stored encrypted and is not shown again. If you are not allowed to import, the buttons are switched off, and only the owner can use them.

If something goes wrong, the reason is shown in the card:

• Zendesk rejected the access. Check the email and API key - the key must belong to the same user as the email. Copy the key again and check that the email is the right one.
• We could not find your Zendesk account on that subdomain. Check the spelling of the subdomain.
• Could not reach Zendesk. Try again in a little while. This is a temporary problem at the source or on the network.

Start the import

1. Click Start import in the card.
2. The card shows how far the import has got. The label switches between Ready to start, Fetching history and finally Done. Next to it are the counts: cases, messages and how many were skipped.
3. The import keeps going on its own. You can close the page and come back later. Reload the page to see the progress.

The import fetches the history in small batches, 25 cases at a time from Zendesk and 20 from Gorgias, and stays within the limits the sources set themselves. If the source asks Nemma to wait, it says The source asked us to wait ... The import continues automatically, and Nemma tries again by itself. How long it takes depends on how much history you have and how fast the source responds. The import fetches everything the source has, and there is no date filter.

Only one import can run at a time per source. If you try to start another, it says An import from that source is already running.

Pause, resume and cancel

• Pause stops the import, and it stays where it got to. Resume takes over from there.
• Cancel stops the import completely (the label Stopped). What has already been fetched stays.
• Import again starts a new run. This is safe: the import goes through the history from the start, but the cases and messages that have already been fetched are recognised and not written a second time. Only the new ones come in.
• Remove connection deletes the key in Nemma. The button appears when no import is running. Also delete the key itself in Zendesk or Gorgias if you no longer need it.

What is imported

• Cases with subject and status. Zendesk's new and open become Open, pending and on hold become Waiting, and solved and closed become Resolved. In Gorgias, closed becomes Resolved, a snoozed case becomes Waiting, and the rest are Open.
• Messages from both the customer and the shop, with their original dates and in order. Internal notes come along as notes, not as messages to the customer.
• The customer with email and name. The email is written in lower case, so the same customer does not become two.
• Attachments: images (JPEG, PNG, GIF, WebP and HEIC), PDF, text files and CSV, up to 10 MB per file. Other file types and larger files are skipped, and Zendesk files that Zendesk itself has marked as harmful are not fetched. A file that cannot be fetched never stops the import of the conversation itself.

What is skipped

Skipped means the case does not come in. The count is shown in the card.

• Cases without a customer email, because they cannot be linked to a customer.
• Cases without any messages with content.
• In Zendesk: cases with a status Nemma does not know.
• In Gorgias: spam and cases in the bin.
• A case that cannot be written, for example because a field is invalid. The import moves on to the next case.

Very long conversations are not fetched in full: at most the first 500 messages per case come in.

The import only fetches cases, messages and attachments. Macros, rules, labels, custom fields, knowledge articles, satisfaction ratings and users are not moved. You write your standing replies as reply templates instead, and your rules for delivery, returns and exchanges as skills.

How to find the imported cases

Imported cases are not in the lists in the Inbox, so they do not clutter your day. You find them with search:

• Press Cmd+K (Mac) or Ctrl+K and type the customer's name, email, an order number or a word from the message. Imported cases have the label Imported. See Search.
• Press / in the Inbox and search in the Inbox's own search.

If you open an imported case, it says Imported from Zendesk (or Gorgias) instead of the reply field, and that the case is history. It cannot be replied to, and the AI does not handle it. You can see the customer's orders in Shopify in the order panel, but you cannot cancel or refund from there.

Attachments and retention

The files in the imported archive follow the same rule as all other files in Nemma: they are deleted automatically 12 months after they were stored with us. The text in the cases stays. If you want to keep an attachment longer, save it yourself.

If the import stops

If the card says Stopped, the reason is shown under the counts:

• The source rejected our access. Check the email and API key under Settings → Import. The key has been deleted or has expired, or does not belong to the email. Remove the connection and connect again with a new key.
• The source could not be found. Check that the subdomain is correct.
• The integration was disconnected. Someone removed the connection along the way.

Click Import again once the cause is fixed. What has already been fetched is not written a second time.

When the import is done

1. Search for a customer you know and check that the history looks right.
2. Click Remove connection and delete the key in the old system.
3. If you have not set up email and Shopify yet, start with How to get started. The import moves history, not new emails: Nemma gets those when you forward your support address.