Reopening an incident

  • Release version: Zurich
  • Updated July 31, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Reopening an incident

    ServiceNow enables users to reopen a resolved incident to continue investigating an unresolved issue. This action can be performed from the incident resolution email notification or directly from the incident form within Incident Management or via the Portal UIs such as Service Portal and Employee Service Center (ESC) portal.

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    Key Features

    • Reopen Methods: Users can click the "Reopen incident" link in the resolution email or select the Reopen option on the incident form or portals.
    • State Change: Reopening an incident changes its state from Resolved to In Progress.
    • User Roles and Permissions:
      • Agents with incident write access, callers, or requesters can reopen incidents.
      • On Portal UIs, callers and requesters see the Reopen option for their incidents.
      • Agents can reopen incidents assigned to themselves or others via the incident form.
      • ESS users without roles can reopen incidents they have opened but cannot reopen or close major incidents.
    • Audit Fields: When reopened, the fields "Last reopened by" and "Last reopened at" are auto-populated to track who reopened the incident and when, supporting auditing and reporting.
    • Reopen Count: The incident form contains a "Reopen count" field indicating how many times an incident has been reopened.
    • Closed Incident Handling: Closed incidents cannot be reopened directly. However, replying to the resolution email with "Please reopen" in the subject can trigger creation of a new incident that copies selected fields from the closed incident. This requires configuration via the incident property com.snc.incident.clonefieldsonreopen.

    Practical Implications for ServiceNow Customers

    Customers can leverage this feature to ensure unresolved issues receive continued attention without creating confusion over incident states. Role-based access controls maintain appropriate permissions for reopening incidents, and audit fields help track incident lifecycle changes. The ability to create a new incident from a closed one via email reply ensures issues can be readdressed even after closure, maintaining service continuity.

    Reopen a resolved incident from the incident’s resolution notification email or from the incident form in Incident Management to further investigate an issue that is still impacting you.

    When an incident is resolved, an incident resolution email notification is sent to you. If you are not satisfied with the resolution of your incident, you can request to reopen the incident using any of the following methods:
    • Select the Reopen incident link from the incident resolution email notification.
    • Select the Reopen option on the incident form in Incident Management or the Portal UI’s such as Service Portal and Employee Service Center (ESC) portal.
    Figure 1. Reopen option on the incident form
    Reopen option on the incident form
    Figure 2. Reopen option in the Service portal
    Reopen option in the service portal
    Figure 3. Reopen option in the Employee Service Center (ESC) portal
    Reopen option in the service portal

    Once an incident is reopened, the state of the incident is then changed from Resolved to In Progress.

    The following conditions are applicable when reopening an incident:
    • You can reopen a resolved incident if you are an agent with incident write access (sn_incident_write), or caller, or Opened by (requester) user for the incident.
    • Both the caller and the requester can view and use the Reopen incident option on the Portal UIs, such as Service Portal and ESC portal.
    • If you are an agent, you can view and use the Reopen option on the incident form to reopen any incident that is assigned to you or to other agents. However, on the Portal UI, you can only view and use the Reopen incident option to reopen an incident if it’s assigned to you or you are the caller or requester for the incident.
    • If an incident is reopened by a user after it was resolved, the Last reopened by and the Last reopened at fields are automatically populated with the name of the person who reopened it and the date and time when the incident is reopened. During audit, this information helps you to generate various reports for reopened incidents.
    • On the Incident form, there is an existing field named Reopen count. Incidents that were reopened prior to the Kingston release, may already have some non-zero values in the Reopen count field while the values in the new fields, Last reopened by and the Last reopened at are null. For incidents that are reopened after the Kingston release, the Last reopened by and the Last reopened at fields are populated.
    • If you do not have any roles in the system (ESS) and you change the incident state to Resolved, you receive a notification with a Reopen incident link.

    • If you do not have any roles in the system (ESS) and you are the caller, you can click Reopen on the incident form to reopen the incident.

      Note:
      An ESS user is not able to resolve, reopen, or close a major incident even if the user is the caller.

    If the incident is already closed, you cannot reopen that incident. However, if you request to reopen the incident by replying to the resolution notification email, a new incident is opened with selected field values that are copied from the closed incident. To enable this feature, you must add fields as values in the List of fields (comma-separated) to copy from the original incident when an incident is reopened by email (com.snc.incident.clone_fields_on_reopen) incident property. These fields are copied from the closed incident to the new incident. Add the text Please reopen to the subject line of the email.