DeskLens

Zendesk export guide

How to open a Zendesk JSON or NDJSON export locally

A full Zendesk JSON export is usually newline-delimited JSON, not one large JSON array. Here is a reliable way to open it, review ticket conversations, and avoid the common large-export traps.

Full JSON is NDJSON Each line is a complete JSON object, so generic JSON viewers may reject it.
One ZIP may contain several files Large exports can be split. Review all parts rather than only the first file.
Very large tickets need attention Zendesk can omit comments for tickets larger than 1 MB and report them separately.

A safe five-step workflow

  1. Download the export and preserve the original. Do not rename or edit files inside the source ZIP. Make a working copy first.
  2. Check whether the export is split. A Zendesk ZIP can contain multiple JSON files. They belong to the same export and should be reviewed together.
  3. Use an NDJSON-aware viewer. If each line starts with a separate object, do not manually add commas and brackets unless you fully control the data size and escaping.
  4. Read parser warnings. Look for malformed lines, duplicate ticket IDs, unknown records, and any separate Zendesk error file that identifies omitted comments.
  5. Verify a sample. Compare ticket IDs, timestamps, statuses, and a few conversation threads with the Zendesk account before exporting filtered results.

Why not convert the entire file first?

NDJSON is designed for streaming. Turning a large export into one in-memory array can make an otherwise readable file fail because of browser memory limits.

Open the export in DeskLens

  1. Open DeskLens and choose the original ZIP, JSON, or NDJSON file.
  2. Wait for parsing to finish in the browser worker.
  3. Review import warnings before searching or filtering tickets.
  4. Inspect conversations and export only the selected results to CSV or Markdown.

DeskLens processes ticket contents in the current browser tab. It does not upload the selected export to an application server. See the privacy and compatibility details for the exact boundary.

Current DeskLens compatibility

Accepted inputs Zendesk-style ZIP archives, JSON, and newline-delimited JSON.
ZIP limits Up to 75 MB compressed and 300 MB declared uncompressed content.
Multiple parts Supported when the ZIP contains multiple compatible JSON or NDJSON files.
Attachments Attachment files and attachment metadata are not imported or displayed.
Output Filtered ticket summaries to CSV and selected conversations to Markdown.

These are DeskLens application limits, not Zendesk export limits. Browser memory and the structure of older or customized exports can still affect a specific file.

Zendesk edge cases worth checking

  • Zendesk recommends JSON instead of CSV when an account has more than 200,000 tickets.
  • For accounts with more than one million tickets, Zendesk documents exporting in 31-day increments.
  • Tickets larger than 1 MB can appear without comments in the main export. Zendesk places details about those records in a separate JSON error file.
  • Incremental exports can contain duplicate versions of a ticket. Zendesk recommends deduplicating by ticket ID and the latest updated_at value.

Official references

The export behavior above is based on Zendesk's ticket, user, and organization export documentation and its incremental export guide. Product behavior can change, so check those pages before building a repeatable migration or audit process.

Review a Zendesk export without uploading ticket contents

Open a ZIP, JSON, or NDJSON file directly in the browser.

Open DeskLens