Can Jira Automation Send Reminder Emails to Multiple Recipients or a Distribution List (CC Support)?

[SanaAnjumShaik]

Hi everyone,

We are looking to implement the “email reminder for inactive tickets” automation in our Jira project. I’m trying to understand the limitations of the “Send email” or “Send notification” actions within Jira Automation.

Specifically, I need clarification on:

1. Can we send the reminder email to multiple recipients (e.g., multiple users or multiple assignees)?
2. Is it possible to CC or include a distribution list (DL) in the reminder email?
3. If CC is not supported, is there any workaround to notify a group or DL?
4. If CC is supported, please share the steps to set-up.

I’ve tried setting this up, but it appears some options may be restricted or require admin permissions.
Any guidance, best practices, or confirmation on what is or isn’t supported would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Hey @SanaAnjumShaik ,

1. Yes - if you use, for example, Send customized email action, you can select user fields or groups, use smart values or enter email addresses for recipients, internal or external to your org.
2. Also, yes - you can use a distribution list. Note that with this relatively new action to send emails/notifications, you cannot set main recipients and CC/BCC emails separately. Everyone you list in "Recipient(s)" field will receive separate emails and will not see other recipient addresses 👈 

Also, apart from sending emails, you can integrate Microsoft Teams and/or Slack and use automation to send notifications directly to a specific channel, for example.

Hope this helps.

Cheers,
Tobi

[Enric Font]

Dear  @SanaAnjumShaik 

Here you have some answers to your questions:

1. Sending to Multiple Recipients
Yes, this is supported with the action:

Send email

• You can enter multiple email addresses in the “To” field, separated by commas.
• You can use smart values such as:
  o {{issue.assignee.emailAddress}}
  o {{issue.reporter.emailAddress}}
• You can also combine smart values and static addresses:
  o {{issue.assignee.emailAddress}}, team@company.com
• This option allows more flexibility, including external recipients.

2. CC / Distribution Lists
In most Jira Cloud environments, there is no separate CC or BCC field in the “Send email” action.
However, you can include a distribution list directly in the “To” field (e.g., support-team@company.com). Functionally, this works the same as CC in most scenarios.

3. Workarounds for Group Notifications
If CC is not available, here are common alternatives:

• Option 1 – Add the DL in the “To” field
  Simply include the distribution list email address along with other recipients.
• Option 2 – Use a Jira Group (recommended for internal users)
  • Create a Jira group (e.g., inactive-ticket-reviewers)
  • Add users to that group
  • Use “Send notification” and select that group as the recipient
  • This is easier to maintain than updating email lists in the automation rule.
• Option 3 – Use Watchers
  • Add users or a group as watchers via automation
  • Send the notification to Watchers
  • This works well if recipients may change over time.

4. Permission Considerations
If certain options are not visible, it may be due to permissions.
You may need:

• Project Admin permissions to create/edit automation rules
• Global Jira Admin permissions to manage groups or global automation rules

If you cannot:

• Select groups
• Enter external email addresses
• Configure notification-related settings

It is likely a permission restriction.

5. Recommended Setup for Inactive Ticket Reminders
A common setup is:

• Trigger: Scheduled
• JQL example:
  statusCategory != Done AND updated <= -5d
• Action: Send email
• To:
  {{issue.assignee.emailAddress}}, team-dl@company.com
• Alternatively, use “Send notification” to:
• Assignee
• A specific project role or group

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @SanaAnjumShaik 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

First we must know what app/hosting you are using. In your post tags you have specified "data center" which is when you company downloads the software and installs it on you on servers (physical or hosted by a cloud provider like AWS). You have also specified in the tags "jira-cloud", which indicates use of the Software-as-a-service app where Atlassian is hosting it for you and handles the host management and application upgrades. Which are you actually using? If you go to the Help button in Jira and select About Jira do you see a version number in the format 9.17.22? That would be an indication you are using data center. If you see a number like that, please tell us what it is as the Automation functionality available in Data Center can vary depending on the version.

The distinction is important because the Automation options are different between the two.

For the Send Email action both support specifying multiple recipients. These can be Users selectable in your instance, User Groups selectable in your instance, or manually entered email addresses.

I have not tested typing in the full email of a Distribution List and confirming that the email is actually sent and received by the members of the list.

In the Send email action in both data center and Cloud there is an option to add recipients to a CC field and a Bcc field, in addition to the To field.

I do not see a Send Notification action within the Cloud and Data Center instances I can access. Can you provide a screen image of that action?

You said you have tried to set it up but the options are not available to you. Can you show us with a screen image where you are, describe what you are trying to select or enter, and tell/show us how you are being blocked?

Setting up Automation Rules in general requires you to be a Jira application administrator, or the administrators may have granted the permission to Jira project administrators also.