How to empty spam calls in Zoho Desk

Emptying spam calls in Zoho Desk permanently removes all call records that have been flagged as spam, clearing them from your spam queue in a single operation.

Why this matters

When your support team uses Zoho Desk's telephony features, unwanted or robocall entries can accumulate in the spam calls list over time. Manually removing individual records is time-consuming, especially for high-volume contact centres. Using the dedicated empty-spam endpoint lets you wipe the entire spam calls list at once, keeping your call logs clean and your agents focused on legitimate interactions.

> Note: Beam Help is an independent expert support resource — we are not official Zoho support. Always verify behaviour against your specific Zoho Desk plan and API version.

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Step-by-step

Step 1. Confirm you have the correct OAuth scopes authorised for your integration or API client. At minimum you will need the Desk.tickets.ALL family of scopes, along with Desk.settings.ALL, to perform destructive operations against Zoho Desk resources. ^[5]

Step 2. Obtain a valid OAuth access token for your Zoho Desk organisation. Without a current token the API will reject the request. Store the token securely and ensure it has not expired before proceeding.

Step 3. Construct your API request. The operation that clears all spam calls is a DELETE request sent to the following endpoint: ^[3]

DELETE /api/v1/calls/emptySpam

Step 4. Send the request to Zoho Desk. Pass any required query parameters using the p dictionary if your client library wraps the call — for example, in Python the helper method signature is: ^[3]

delete_empty_spam_calls(self, p: dict = None)

If you are calling the REST endpoint directly (e.g., with curl or Postman), include your Authorization: Zoho-oauthtoken <token> header and issue the DELETE to the full portal URL for your data centre region.

Step 5. Check the HTTP response code. A successful operation will return a 2xx status, confirming that the spam calls queue has been emptied. If you receive a 4xx or 5xx response, review your token validity and scope assignments before retrying. ^[3]

Step 6. If you also need to clear spam *tasks* (a related but separate resource), the equivalent endpoint is: ^[6]

DELETE /api/v1/tasks/spam/empty

This follows the same authentication and parameter pattern as the calls endpoint, so you can chain both operations in a single cleanup script. ^[6]

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Common pitfalls

• Irreversible action. Emptying spam calls is a permanent deletion — there is no recycle bin or undo option for this operation. Double-check that the records in your spam queue are genuinely unwanted before executing the request. ^[3]
• Scope mismatches. If your OAuth token was generated with a limited scope set, the DELETE request will fail with an authorisation error. Review the full list of Zoho Desk OAuth scopes and regenerate your token if necessary. ^[5]
• Confusing calls spam with ticket or mail spam. The /api/v1/calls/emptySpam endpoint targets *call* records only. Spam tickets and spam tasks each have their own dedicated endpoints — do not assume one operation clears all spam types across Zoho Desk. ^[3][6]

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What to check

• Confirm the spam calls list is empty by navigating to the Calls section in your Zoho Desk portal after the API call completes, or by issuing a GET request to the calls spam resource and verifying a zero-count response.
• Verify your OAuth token scopes include the settings and deletion permissions required for call management, so future cleanup scripts do not fail silently. ^[5]
• Review whether spam tasks also need clearing — if your team logs tasks alongside calls, run the DELETE /api/v1/tasks/spam/empty operation as well to keep both queues tidy. ^[6]