How do I add a second email address to a user

One user can hold several addresses, and mail from any of them reaches the same record. It is the fix for most duplicate-record problems.

One user can hold several addresses, and mail from any of them reaches the same record. It is the fix for most duplicate-record problems.

Add one

1. Search for the user in Support and click them in the results to open their profile.
2. Click + add contact and select Email.
3. Enter the address in the field that appears.
4. Click Save at the bottom right.
5. Wait for the person to confirm before treating the address as usable.

Step five is not optional bookkeeping. Each time you add an address, Zendesk emails a verification to it, and the address is not valid until the person confirms. An unverified address behaves as though it is not on the record, which looks exactly like the feature not working.

Editing somebody's record is not something every agent may do: it needs access to all tickets, which on Enterprise is set in the custom role. An agent who cannot open the profile is looking at that, not at a fault.

A user account can hold several addresses, so this is not a choice between two.

What it achieves

Mail from either address reaches the same record. Their history stays in one place, and agents see the whole picture rather than half of it.

When to use it

• A customer writing from work and from home.
• Somebody who changed name and address.
• A colleague who existed as a customer before becoming an agent.
• A person at a company that has been through a rebrand.

What the primary address decides

Notifications and password resets go to the primary address, and only to it. Signing in is different: people can sign in with either the primary or a verified secondary address.

So adding a second address gives somebody another way in, but not another way to recover their password. If they cannot reach the primary mailbox, a reset never arrives.

If the address is already on another record

You get an error, because addresses are unique across the account. That other record is usually a duplicate of the same person, and merging is the answer rather than deleting.

For agents, check it during offboarding

A second address on a team member's record is exactly how an account keeps working after the obvious one is disabled. Look at every address, not just the primary.

See also

• Adding and managing end users
• Merging duplicate users
• Error: this email is already taken
• Managing team member email addresses
• Can two user accounts share an email address