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Preparing for a Migration from Kayako to Another Ticketing System: Restricting Customer Access and Requesting a Full Backup

Overview

When an organization is migrating from Kayako to another ticketing system, it often needs to do three things during cutover:

  1. Stop customers from creating new tickets
  2. Stop customers from replying to existing tickets
  3. Export or request a complete backup of the Kayako instance for migration and recordkeeping

In Kayako, these are not controlled by a single setting.

Disabling the Help Center ticket submission form only stops new conversations from being created through the Help Center. It does not stop customers from signing in, and it does not stop them from replying to older conversations.

If customers are still able to sign in and reply from the Help Center portal, the relevant control is to disable the customer user accounts. If the goal is to prevent any further updates on existing conversations, the conversation status also matters: Completed conversations can still be reopened, while Closed conversations cannot be reopened or updated.

For migration exports, Kayako supports a full data dump / backup request. The backup is provided as a MySQL dump, with options for database only, attachments only, or database with attachments. See Exporting Kayako Data to Another Customer Support System, Requesting a Data Dump or Backup for Your Kayako Instance, Disabling the Help Center Conversation or Ticket Submission Form, and Disabling a User Account (Staff or Customer).

Solution or Explanation

1. Stop new ticket creation in the Help Center

To prevent customers from creating new tickets through the Help Center, disable the New Conversation template.

This is the correct control when the migration plan requires the Help Center submission form to be unavailable, but it does not block replies to existing conversations.

Steps

  1. Sign in to Kayako and open the Help Center.
  2. Click Customize.
  3. Select Customize templates.
  4. From the Template dropdown, choose New Conversation.
  5. Replace the template content with a static message such as:
   <div class="wrap wrap--body wrap--new-conversation">     <h1 class="ruled" id="conversation-subject">Ticket submission is disabled.</h1>   </div>
  1. Save the template.

This fully disables the Help Center submission form and displays the replacement message instead. Simply hiding the “Start a conversation” link is not enough, because users who know the direct submission URL can still reach the form unless the New Conversation template itself is changed. See Disabling the Help Center Conversation or Ticket Submission Form.

2. Stop customers from signing in and replying through the portal

If customers are still logging in to the Help Center and replying to older tickets, the form change above is not sufficient. In that case, the relevant account-level control is to disable the customer users.

What happens when a customer user is disabled

  • The customer can no longer sign in to the Help Center.
  • The Help Center shows the message Invalid User - Account Disabled.
  • Emails from that disabled user are suspended with the reason USER_IS_DISABLED.

Manual UI method

  1. Sign in to the Agent Area.
  2. Find the user through the unified search or from the customer list.
  3. Open the user menu.
  4. Select Disable user.

The customer and organization lists are available from the Agent Area sidebar. See Disabling a User Account (Staff or Customer) and Where to Find a List of All Customers and Organizations.

3. Disable many customer users in bulk

When a migration affects a large number of customer accounts, the scalable method is the Users API.

A documented bulk workflow is:

  1. Retrieve customer users:
   GET /api/v1/users.json?role=CUSTOMER
  1. Collect the user IDs to disable.
  2. Disable them in bulk:
   PUT /api/v1/users.json   ids=<comma-separated-user-ids>   is_enabled=false

Kayako’s developer documentation for the Users endpoint documents:

  • retrieving users by role=CUSTOMER
  • bulk updating users with ids
  • setting is_enabled=false

If API access is needed, Kayako’s public API guidance explains that requests can be tested with an API client such as Postman using Basic Auth with a Kayako username and password for an authorized staff account. If that account has two-factor authentication enabled, it must be disabled for that Basic Auth flow. See Finding Documentation for the Kayako API and Users - Users | Kayako Developers.

4. Stop replies to existing conversations

During migration cutover, disabling new submissions is often only part of the requirement. Existing conversations may also need to be locked down.

There are two common reply paths:

  • Portal replies from signed-in customer users
  • Email replies sent back to a support mailbox

Portal replies

Portal replies are controlled by:

  • the customer’s ability to sign in
  • the conversation status

If the objective is to prevent further updates on existing conversations, move those conversations to Closed status or shorten the automation that closes completed conversations.

This distinction is important:

  • Completed conversations can still be reopened.
  • Closed conversations cannot be reopened or updated by customers or agents.

By default, Kayako includes automation that moves conversations from Completed to Closed after a period of time. That behavior can be adjusted under:

Administration > Automation > Monitors

See How Conversation or Ticket Status Is Change From Completed to Closed and Closing Completed Conversations Automatically.

Email replies

If the migration requires stopping inbound replies to a support mailbox, disable the relevant support email address in Kayako.

Path

Administration > Channels > Email

Disabling the support email address stops inbound email for that channel, including replies to older tickets and new emails sent to that mailbox. If an external mailbox forwards into Kayako, the forwarding rule may also need to be paused outside Kayako. See Managing the Support Email Addresses Settings.

5. Request a full backup for migration

If data must be preserved before moving away from Kayako, request a full backup/data dump.

Important product behavior

  • Kayako provides up-to-date backups only.
  • Historical backups such as “from one week ago” or “from one month ago” are not supported.
  • The backup is provided as a MySQL dump, not CSV.
  • The request can be for:
    • Database only
    • Attachments only
    • Database with attachments

Required information

  1. The main instance URL (the original/default brand URL)
  2. The backup type:
    • Database only
    • Attachments only
    • Database with attachments
  3. The desired download-link expiry
  4. Billing validation:
    • the request must come from a recognized billing contact, or
    • the requester must provide the billing email address and mailing address registered on the account

For a migration where both ticket content and file attachments are needed, select Database with attachments. See Requesting a Data Dump or Backup for Your Kayako Instance and Exporting Kayako Data to Another Customer Support System.

6. Understand how attachments are represented in the backup

In a Database with attachments backup, the attachment files are stored separately, but the SQL dump contains the metadata needed to associate those files with their related records.

The backup is therefore usable for migration and analysis, but the attachment files may not be named with the ticket ID directly. The mapping is done through the database metadata stored in the SQL dump.

7. Use an appropriate tool to review the SQL backup

Because the backup is delivered as a MySQL dump, it is best reviewed by importing it into a local MySQL-compatible database and using a database tool to browse and query the data.

A practical approach is:

  • import the dump into a local MySQL Server
  • use MySQL Workbench to browse the tables
  • use the MySQL command-line client for very large imports if needed

A normal spreadsheet tool is not the right way to review a full Kayako SQL dump.

Example

A common migration scenario is:

  • the Help Center submission form is disabled successfully
  • customers stop creating new tickets
  • customers can still sign in and reply to older tickets

In that situation, the Help Center form change is working as designed, but it only affects new conversation creation. To stop replies to old tickets, the organization must also address customer account access, conversation status, or email channel intake, depending on how those replies are being sent.

Verification

Use the verification method that matches the migration control being applied:

  • Help Center form disabled
    Open the Help Center submission page and confirm the form is replaced by the configured message.

  • Customer users disabled
    Attempt to sign in as a disabled customer and confirm the Help Center shows Invalid User - Account Disabled.

  • Completed-to-Closed strategy applied
    Confirm that conversations intended to be locked are in Closed status and cannot be reopened or updated.

  • Support email disabled
    Send a test message to the disabled support address and confirm it is no longer processed into Kayako.

  • Backup request completed
    Confirm that the backup download details have been returned for the requested backup type.

Additional Notes

  • Disabling the Help Center submission form does not disable customer sign-in.
  • Disabling customer users does not automatically close conversations.
  • Closed conversations are locked; Completed conversations are not.
  • Disabling a support email address affects the email path, not the Help Center sign-in path.
  • Backup requests are for the full instance, so the main/original instance URL should be provided.
  • The backup is a MySQL dump, not a CSV export.
  • Kayako can provide the export/backup, but support for importing that data into a different ticketing system is outside the scope of the backup process. See Exporting Kayako Data to Another Customer Support System.

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  1. Syed Haider

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