Guide · Jira Cloud
How to attach an Outlook email to a Jira work item (and keep it readable)
A customer sends the details by email, a colleague forwards an approval, a supplier confirms a date. The email belongs on the work item. There are four ways to get it there, and they do not end the same way.
Way 1: the Jira Cloud for Outlook add-in
Atlassian's own add-in lets you create a work item from an email, or add an email to an existing one, from inside Outlook. Emails added this way show up on the work item under Attached emails in the web view, where they can be read. Two limits to know: the add-in has to be installed and signed in for everyone who files emails, and only emails added through the add-in appear in that section. Files that arrive any other way do not.
Way 2: drag the email onto the work item
Dragging a message from Outlook onto the attachment area of a work item is the quickest route, and it is where most of the confusion starts. Classic Outlook for Windows saves the message as a .msg file. New Outlook, Outlook for Mac, Apple Mail and Thunderbird save it as .eml. Dragging straight from new Outlook into the browser does not always work; saving the message to the desktop first and dragging that file does. Both land on the work item as ordinary attachments.
The problem comes when someone opens them: Jira Cloud has no viewer for either format. A .eml shows as raw source, a .msg as unreadable code. That has been an open request on Atlassian's tracker (JRACLOUD-77500) since 2021. The content is all there, but every reader has to download the file and open it in a mail client.
Way 3: forward the email to Jira
If your project has an email channel (Jira Service Management does, and Jira can be set up with a mail handler), you can forward the email to that address. Forwarding inline puts the text in the description or in a comment, which is readable but drops the headers and sometimes the formatting. Forwarding as an attachment keeps the original email, but Jira's mail handler stores it as a file without an extension, so it does not even look like an email (JRACLOUD-40477, open since 2014). Readers have to download it, rename it to .eml and open it in a mail client.
Way 4: save as PDF first
Printing the email to PDF before attaching it gives a file Jira can preview. You lose the headers, the original attachments and the ability to reply or forward later, and it only works when the person attaching remembers to do it every time. Fine for an occasional contract confirmation; not workable for a service desk.
Keeping the email readable on the work item
Ways 2 and 3 are the ones people actually use day to day, and both leave an email on the work item that Jira cannot show. Renaming .msg to .eml does not help; the formats are unrelated. What does help is a viewer inside Jira. Compare apps on these points: whether the email is rendered in your browser with no external servers ("Runs on Atlassian"), whether both formats are covered, including .msg files that only carry RTF and forwarded emails without an extension, and whether scripts and remote images are stripped before anything is shown.
Full disclosure: Dortus makes such an app. MailView lists the email files on the work item and shows the one you click (up to 10 MB) with formatting, inline images and the files inside, whether the file was uploaded, dragged in or forwarded through the mail handler. It also gives a plain-English check for suspicious mail (authentication results, domains with lookalike letters from other alphabets or with accents, links whose text points elsewhere). It stores nothing and sends nothing anywhere, and it works in Jira and in the agent view of Jira Service Management.
Short answers
Which way should a team pick? If everyone works in Outlook and will install the add-in, Way 1 gives readable emails out of the box. If emails arrive from customers, automations or colleagues who just drag and drop, plan for .msg and .eml files on your work items and add a viewer.
Does the file type matter? Not for storing. Both are kept intact. It matters for reading: Outlook for Windows opens both, Apple Mail and Thunderbird open .eml only.
Can Jira show the email in the mobile app? No. Attached emails from the add-in are a web-only feature, and other email files are downloads everywhere.
Questions
Spotted something wrong on this page, or a case we missed? Email support@dortus.com.
MailView by Dortus
Read .msg and .eml attachments on the work item
The email as it was sent, with inline images and the files inside, plus a plain-English phishing check. Runs on Atlassian, stores nothing, sends nothing anywhere. Works in Jira and the Jira Service Management agent view.
Submitted to the Atlassian Marketplace, in review.