How to create Jira work items from email (Jira, not Jira Service Management)

The short answer

A Jira admin connects a mailbox and adds a mail handler. In Atlassian's words: "Jira periodically scans your new emails from your mail account, and it then creates work items and comments from your mails (via mail handlers)" (Atlassian: Create work items and comments from email). The senders have to be Jira users: "Jira can receive emails from licensed users". If the people who email you are customers or other outsiders, look at Jira Service Management instead.

Set up the mail handler

• Who sets it up. Configuring incoming mail needs the Administer Jira global permission.
• A mailbox. Jira reads a mail account over POP or IMAP. For Gmail and Microsoft accounts, Atlassian's page says "we recommend that you switch to OAuth".
• Where. In Jira's settings, choose System, then Mail, then Incoming Mail. Add the incoming mail server there; the mail handler is in the same section.
• What it creates. In the handler you "specify the space key of the default project where you want new work items to be created by this handler", plus, depending on the handler, more options. The handler type "Create a new work item or add a comment to an existing work item" does what its name says.
• How often. In the handler you "specify the delay in minutes between the mail handler's running time".

All five points come from Atlassian's page Create work items and comments from email, which also has the step-by-step setup.

Who can email in

Atlassian's page says "Jira can receive emails from licensed users". For senders who are not Jira users yet, the page describes a separate route with a dummy account; see the page for the steps.

Emails the handler skips

• Old emails. According to Atlassian's page, "the sent date must not be older than 7 days".
• Emails that fail SPF. The page says an email that fails the SPF check is rejected.

Attachments and size

Atlassian: "Any attachments to the email will become attachments to the work item if attachments have been enabled in Jira (they are by default)." And: "The maximum limit for message data and attachments for an email is 25 MB." (Atlassian: Create work items and comments from email).

Forwarded emails

Forwarding an email inline puts its text in the work item, without the original headers. Forwarding it as an attachment keeps the original email, but Jira's mail handler stores that file without an extension, so it does not look like an email on the work item. The request to change that is JRACLOUD-40477, "Allow forwarded email attachments to be detected by JIRA mail handler and renamed to .eml or .msg": created in October 2014, with the status Gathering Interest on 14 October 2026. See how to attach an Outlook email to a Jira work item for the other ways to get an email onto a work item.

Full disclosure: Dortus makes MailView. It recognizes a forwarded email attached without a file name by its headers and shows it on the work item, with a Details tab for the headers. It does not set up or change the mail handler; it only reads email files that are already attached.

From your own mailbox, one email at a time

• Gmail. With Atlassian's Jira Cloud for Gmail you can create work items from emails, or attach emails as comments to existing work items (Atlassian: Integrate Jira Cloud with Gmail).
• Outlook. Atlassian's Jira Cloud for Outlook add-in works from inside Outlook; see the first way in how to attach an Outlook email to a Jira work item.

Both work per person: someone opens the email and files it. That suits people who work from their own inbox. For a shared address that should turn into work items by itself, the mail handler is the route.

When the senders are customers

For customers, Jira Service Management has its own email channel (Atlassian: How customers create requests by email). If requests do not show up there, see Jira Service Management not creating requests from email. To see the email behind a request, see how to see the original email behind a Jira Service Management request.

What the mail handler does not do

• Take every sender. Jira receives emails from licensed users; other senders need the dummy-account route from Atlassian's page.
• Take old or large emails. The sent date must not be older than 7 days, and the maximum is 25 MB for the message and its attachments together.
• Keep the email readable. An email forwarded as an attachment arrives as a file without an extension, and Jira Cloud does not show it as an email.

Short answers

Can people outside the company create Jira work items by email? Not as themselves: Jira receives emails from licensed users. For customers, look at Jira Service Management.

Do I need a Jira admin? Yes. Setting up incoming mail and the handler needs the Administer Jira global permission.

Can I keep the email itself on the work item? Forward it as an attachment, or attach the .msg or .eml file. Jira Cloud stores the file but does not show it as an email; see how to open .msg and .eml attachments in Jira.

Questions

Set it up differently, or hit a limit we did not mention? Email support@dortus.com.