Will the original assignees, message authors and created dates be preserved?
Yes. Created-time metadata is carried across, and so are assignees and message authors who have a user account in Intercom. Where Intercom cannot store one of them natively, it is kept as embedded metadata on the migrated record.
If the new system can't natively support an old record type, what are my options?
We handle it case by case. While mapping your data, we identify every record type without a direct counterpart in Intercom, review sample records from it and propose how it can be represented, based on what Intercom supports: map it to the closest native object, create a custom field or object, fold it into the parent record as text or a note, attach it as a file, or keep it in a read-only archive. You choose the approach, we write the migration scripts to place the data there, so it comes across in the form you choose instead of being left behind, and you see how it looks in a sample migration before we run the full set.
Can we choose which Intercom inbox our Help Scout tickets go to?
Yes, where Intercom's API lets us set a ticket's inbox. We map each Help Scout group to an inbox in Intercom, so for example tickets from a Sales group land in your Sales inbox. If you want some tickets to land somewhere else, tell us during scoping and we build that mapping into the migration. If you want changes after go-live, we can re-run the scripts to move them.
Do you migrate our Help Scout workflows, triggers and automations to Intercom, or just the tickets?
They can be part of the migration. We recreate your existing Help Scout triggers and automations in Intercom using its own conditions and actions, and agree the exact list of rules with you during scoping. Designing new workflows beyond the ones you have today is separate, and is best done by your team or your implementation partner.
Are the times of each Help Scout comment, reply and update preserved in Intercom, not just ticket creation dates?
Yes. Each ticket's creation time is preserved exactly, and so is the time of each comment and reply, so the history shows when every update happened. The one possible exception is the ticket-level 'last updated' field, which some platforms set themselves when a ticket is written, so it may show the migration date; the original update history stays in the comment timestamps.
What happens to Help Scout tickets assigned to agents who have left the team or don't have an account in Intercom?
They still come across. Before the migration runs, you decide where they go: to a fallback owner you choose, or left unassigned where Intercom allows it. Either way, each ticket can get a tag with the original agent's name, for example Assigned_to_Jane, so your team can still see and filter who handled it and reassign them later.
Can we merge several Help Scout accounts into one Intercom account and still tell which account each ticket came from?
Yes. Tickets from several Help Scout accounts can be consolidated into one Intercom account, and each ticket is tagged with the account it came from so your team can filter by origin. A shared migration tag can also go on every imported ticket, which keeps historical records separate from new work.
Do our Help Scout ticket attachments come across to Intercom?
Yes. Attachments are migrated along with the ticket conversations they belong to, not just the text. We can also carry over reference fields such as the original ticket number and a link back to Help Scout, so your team can cross-check any record. You can review attachments and dates in the sample migration before the full run.
Our Help Scout setup has custom ticket statuses that Intercom doesn't have. How do they get mapped?
We map every Help Scout status to a status in Intercom and send you a proposed mapping for the ones that need a decision. You confirm or correct it before the full migration, and the sample migration shows exactly how your tickets' statuses land.
Which of our Help Scout ticket tags carry over to Intercom, and can migrated tickets be marked so we can tell them apart?
The tags on the tickets being migrated. Tags come across as part of each migrated ticket, so a tag that isn't on any migrated ticket isn't created in Intercom, and you can also limit the migration to a list of tags you choose in the migration checklist. Each migration is a custom script, so we can also stamp every imported ticket with a tag such as "migrated", or, where Intercom has custom ticket fields, a field value you choose, so they are easy to filter, and if you ask for a change after reviewing migrated tickets, we re-sync those tickets with the update. The sample migration shows exactly how your tags appear before the full run.
Will the migration set off automations or send emails or notifications to customers, our team or anyone else?
No. Before the sample or full migration starts, we confirm with you that nothing in Intercom will send messages about the migrated data: we import with notifications switched off wherever Intercom allows it, and either pause any automation that could send them for the migration window or give it a condition, such as a suppression tag, that skips migrated records, which lets your live automations keep running for new records. We only proceed once you have confirmed it. If you want anyone told about the move, that message is sent separately, once the migrated data has been checked.
Will you migrate our Help Scout knowledge base articles as well as tickets?
Yes. Knowledge base articles can be part of the same migration as your tickets, and move into your Intercom knowledge base.
Can we migrate only our Help Scout contacts who have tickets, not our whole contact list?
Yes. We pull your tickets first, collect the distinct requesters from them, and migrate only those contact records. Contacts with no ticket history are not added to Intercom.
Can you migrate data that Intercom can't take in through an API?
In many cases, yes. Where something can't be written through an API, we recreate it through Intercom's user interface where the interface allows it, and where that work is repetitive we script and automate it. We tell you up front which items are handled this way, because recreating them through the interface can add time to the schedule.
If we don't recreate all our Help Scout custom fields in Intercom, will that data still be kept on our old tickets?
Yes. We can write custom field values onto each migrated ticket as an internal note, laid out as readable field-and-value pairs. Your team can still see that information on every historical ticket, and only the fields you plan to keep using need to be recreated.
Will full Help Scout ticket conversations come across, or only notes on each ticket?
We migrate the full conversation on each ticket, not a summary saved as notes. Where Help Scout's API doesn't expose part of the history, our engineers retrieve it from Help Scout directly and work out a route to load it into Intercom. You check the result in a sample migration before the full run begins.
What happens if Intercom requires fields our Help Scout data doesn't have?
We check the destination for required fields your source data cannot fill and bring each one to you before those records are migrated. Together we agree how each one is handled, such as a mapping from an existing field, a default value, or, where Intercom lets that field be made optional, setting it to not required for the migration so you can make it required again once the migration is complete. The migration then runs with that rule applied, so no records are rejected or left behind.
What happens if some Help Scout tickets fail to migrate?
Every ticket that errors is logged. We review it, fix the cause and re-sync it, then validate the result before cutover. When the migration is complete you receive a list of every migrated ticket, so you can check it against Help Scout.
What happens to Help Scout comments written by agents who have since left the company?
Their comments migrate with the rest of the ticket history. If the original author does not have an account in Intercom, we can add a line at the start of the comment naming who wrote it, so it stays attributable.
Do internal notes and system-generated notes from Help Scout migrate to Intercom, or only customer-facing replies?
Internal notes can come across, and so can system-generated notes where Help Scout's API makes them available. During scoping you choose which notes to include, so Intercom holds the history your team will actually use.
Can you assign migrated tickets to Intercom groups based on the email address they were sent to?
Yes, where Help Scout's API shows which address each ticket was sent to and Intercom's API lets us set each ticket's group. Routing rules like "every ticket sent to this address goes to that group" are written into the migration script, so tickets arrive in Intercom already in the right groups. You confirm the rules with us up front and check the result on the sample migration before the full run.
Can you map our Help Scout ticket categories or field values to different ones in Intercom?
Yes. You give us the mapping, including what blank values should become, and we apply it in the migration script so every ticket arrives in Intercom with the new values. You check the mapping on the sample migration before the full run.
Can we keep spam and sales emails out of Intercom?
Yes. We agree filtering rules with you up front so spam and sales emails are excluded rather than imported. Afterwards you receive a list of every ticket we pulled from Help Scout, with excluded tickets marked as skipped.
Will emojis and special characters in our Help Scout tickets come through correctly in Intercom?
Yes, as long as Intercom can store them. Our scripts carry emojis and special characters across intact, and we can clean out stray encoding characters left behind in older tickets before anything is written to Intercom. You can check the result in the sample migration before the full run.
Can you migrate hundreds of thousands of Help Scout tickets and contacts to Intercom?
Yes. Every migration is a custom script built for your project, so volume is something we plan for, not a limit on what can move. At large volumes, run time is set mainly by how fast Help Scout's and Intercom's APIs accept requests, and we plan the full run around that. Before the full run, we test the mapping and throughput with a sample migration.
We use a lot of custom fields in Help Scout. Can you map them to Intercom?
Where Intercom has a place for them, yes. Each migration is a custom script written for your project, so your custom fields and structure are mapped to Intercom's model rather than forced through an import template. Where field types differ, such as a value stored as text in Help Scout that Intercom needs as a number, the script converts it. We agree the mapping with you and prove it on a sample migration before the full run.
Can you combine data from Help Scout and other support tools into one Intercom account?
Yes. Each tool's data is extracted separately and written into the same Intercom account. How records from the different tools fit together is settled in the data mapping before the build. The sample migration includes data from every source, so you can check the combined result before the full run.
Can you fix Help Scout tickets that are linked to the wrong company during the migration?
Yes, where Intercom lets a company be set on each ticket. Each migration runs as custom scripts against the source and destination APIs, so we can set the correct company on each ticket as it is written to Intercom. We agree the assignment rules with you first. The corrected links show up in the sample migration, so you can check them before the full run.
Will our Help Scout ticket formatting, including HTML content, carry over to Intercom?
Yes. The migration script converts ticket content, including HTML, into the format Intercom expects, and our verification checks compare migrated tickets with the originals, including how the HTML renders. The sample migration lets you compare migrated tickets side by side with the originals before the full run, and if anything renders differently, such as HTML appearing as raw text, we adjust the script and re-run the samples until you sign off.
Our Help Scout account already holds tickets imported from an earlier migration. Will that cause problems when we migrate to Intercom?
It can make the number of tickets we pull differ from the count Help Scout shows, so tell us about the earlier import during scoping. We compare those two numbers before the full run, so if earlier-imported history makes them differ, we find out why first. When the migration is complete, the reconciliation report accounts for every ticket.
Are deleted Help Scout tickets included in the migration?
Only if you want them. You decide during scoping whether deleted and spam tickets are included, and we apply that choice to every run, including the final delta sync. Some platforms keep deleted tickets as scrubbed records with no remaining content; we flag any we find and migrate them only if you ask.
Do you migrate Help Scout live chat, SMS and messaging conversations, such as WhatsApp, to Intercom, and do they keep their original channel?
Yes. Chat conversations and messages from channels such as WhatsApp or Instagram are migrated as tickets alongside your email history, where Help Scout makes them available through its API or an export. Intercom may not let imported tickets keep every original channel: some platforms take most imported tickets in through a general API channel instead. So we keep the original channel wherever Intercom allows it, and can tag each ticket with its original one, such as chat, SMS or WhatsApp, so your team can still find and filter them. If an export leaves out the message content for some channels, we tell you and agree another way to retrieve it.
Will our migrated tickets end up with duplicate comments?
Not normally, and we check for it. Our verification checks compare each migrated ticket with its original, including the message content, and each delta round is checked against what earlier rounds already migrated. If a ticket is found with duplicated comments, we can delete and reimport it, and it keeps its original creation time and conversation timestamps.
Will Help Scout tickets that have no customer email address, or whose contact can't be found, still be migrated to Intercom?
Yes, if you want them. We look the contact up again before leaving any ticket behind: when a ticket can't be linked to its contact on the first pass, we run a second lookup, also checking elsewhere in the ticket's data, and attach the requester before the ticket is migrated. Some help desks need an email address or telephone number to create the customer a ticket belongs to, so we flag every ticket whose requester still has neither, including where Help Scout's privacy settings hide the email from its API, and send you the list. You can then give us the right email for each requester, or have the tickets migrated with placeholder email addresses, and we migrate them that way.
If our Help Scout spam tickets are migrated to Intercom, will they still be marked as spam?
Yes, they can be. If you choose to include spam tickets, we mark them, for example with a spam tag, alongside a migration tag if you use one, so they stay easy to find and filter in Intercom, and we include some in the sample so you can check them. If you'd rather leave spam behind, we agree a filter during scoping and it isn't imported.
If we collect customer satisfaction (CSAT) ratings in Help Scout, can you migrate them to Intercom?
Yes, where Intercom can store them. Where it accepts satisfaction ratings, we migrate them with their tickets, which can need an extra permission on the new account's connection. Where it has no native place for historical ratings, we bring the scores across another way, such as a custom field or a tag on each ticket, agreed with you during scoping.
Can the activity history on each Help Scout ticket, such as status changes and assignments, be migrated to Intercom?
Usually not as a native timeline. Event history such as status changes and assignment timestamps stays with your Help Scout account and generally isn't something a help desk accepts on import, so it is left out of the migration. Each ticket still arrives with its full conversation, status and assignee, and with its original timestamps where Intercom accepts them, and parts of the history that matter to you can be kept another way, such as a tag with the ticket's original status or an internal note.
Can you migrate Help Scout tickets that belong to private or restricted categories?
Yes, once the migration's connection can reach them. If a category or group is private or restricted in Help Scout or Intercom, the account we connect with may not be able to read or create tickets in it, so we flag every ticket this affects. You can then lift the restriction or give the connection the access it needs, such as an admin-level account, and we migrate the remaining tickets, or tell us to leave them out.
If we have Facebook and Instagram comments in Help Scout, will they keep the right author and show where they came from in Intercom?
Yes, as far as Help Scout records it. Each message is attributed to the author Help Scout's API reports, and messages from your team show under the right agent as long as that agent's account exists in Intercom before the tickets are migrated; otherwise they fall back to the default agent. We also carry over the message source in as much detail as the API provides, for example telling comments on Instagram posts apart from comments on Instagram ads.
Can you also migrate email threads from our email account, such as Gmail, that never became tickets in Help Scout?
Yes. Once your email account, such as Gmail, is connected, we can pull selected email threads directly from it, for example for a date range you choose, and migrate them into Intercom as tickets. We share the list of threads with you to confirm before anything moves. Because they were never tickets, some details can look different from tickets migrated from Help Scout.
Will Help Scout tickets that have no messages or comments still be migrated to Intercom?
Yes, if you want them. Some help desks can't create a ticket without at least one message, so we flag every ticket that has none and send you the list rather than skipping them silently. We first check whether the content is stored elsewhere in Help Scout, such as a ticket description we can use as the first message. Otherwise we can migrate the ticket with a placeholder message, or leave it out if you prefer.
Do you download attachments for every Help Scout ticket, or only for the tickets being migrated?
It depends on the source platform. For some sources, our scripts fetch attachments at the time each ticket is migrated rather than during the initial data pull, so files are downloaded only for the tickets in scope. For others, attachments are pulled along with the initial data. Either way, only the tickets you choose are migrated.
What happens to a conversation in Help Scout that mixes email and chat messages if Intercom keeps those channels separate?
We agree the approach with you during scoping. One option is to split the conversation into a ticket for each channel, each carrying the same subject, tags and other details, so the two are easy to find together on the same customer. If you'd rather have a single thread, we confirm during scoping whether Intercom can hold it that way, and you check the result in the sample migration.
Will a customer in Help Scout with several email addresses or telephone numbers end up as duplicate contacts in Intercom?
Not if we agree the merges with you first. We identify records that share an email address or telephone number and propose merges in the migration checklist, where you confirm each one and choose which address stays primary. Each merged set becomes one contact holding all of that customer's tickets and, where Intercom allows it, all of their email addresses. We don't merge on a guess, so records you don't confirm stay as they are.
If we use a chatbot in Help Scout, do you migrate it and its conversation flows to Intercom, or only the conversations it handled?
We migrate the conversations it handled, not the chatbot itself. Every chat conversation the bot took part in comes across with your ticket history, while the chatbot's own setup isn't migrated as data and is set up again in Intercom where it offers one. Workflows and automation rules are a separate item, and the ones you have today can be recreated in Intercom as agreed during scoping.
Will our customers be able to see their migrated conversations in Intercom, for example in a customer portal?
It depends on Intercom. Migrated tickets are attached to each customer's contact record like any other ticket, so where Intercom has a portal that shows customers their own tickets, the migrated ones can appear there, while internal notes stay private to your agents. Some portals only show tickets or replies set up in a particular way, so we confirm during scoping how imported tickets show to customers in Intercom and check it in the sample migration.
Can our agents reply to customers from migrated Help Scout tickets in Intercom?
Yes, where Intercom treats migrated tickets as regular tickets and your support email is connected to it. An agent's reply from a migrated ticket then goes out to the customer, and the customer's next reply continues on that same ticket. Some help desks keep imported tickets read-only, so we confirm this for Intercom and test it on your account before your team relies on it.
Will the information that integrations show in our Help Scout tickets be migrated to Intercom?
Not if that information lives in the integration rather than in Help Scout. Widgets and similar panels are often drawn live by the integration, and where Help Scout doesn't store that data or return it through its API, it can't be migrated with the tickets. The tickets and their conversations migrate as normal, and your team reconnects each integration to Intercom after cutover.