JSM Cloud – Custom Mailbox Integration (Incoming Mail Handler) Issues with Reporter Mapping & Email

[Phuong Do]

Context:
We are currently using Jira Service Management (JSM) Cloud and want to build an email-to-Jira integration. We followed the procedures based on this reference article: https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/create-issues-and-comments-from-email/ 

Our Purpose:
We do not want to use the built-in JSM email channel because we need a fully customized mailbox (support@ourcompany.com) for branding and security reasons.

What We Are Doing Now:

• Configured Incoming Mail and Mail Handler to connect with our custom mailbox.

Expected Outcome:

• Customer sends an email → Jira creates a ticket.
• Agent replies in Jira → customer sees the response in their Outlook inbox.
• Customer replies to the same email thread → Jira adds the reply as a comment under the same issue, preserving the conversation.

Current Issues:

1. Because we use the incoming mail handler:
   • Only Jira users can be set as the reporter.
   • If the sender is not a Jira user, the issue is created but the reporter defaults to the “default reporter” configured in the handler.
2. Communication exchange is broken:
   • When we reply to the customer from Jira, the response does not appear in their Outlook inbox.
   • When the customer replies to the email thread, the message is added under the mailbox but does not show as coming from them (it appears under the default reporter).

Questions:

• Is this behavior expected because we are not using the built-in JSM email channel?
• Is there any way to achieve the expected outcome (full conversation sync, correct reporter mapping, and custom domain for outgoing emails) without using the built-in email channel?
• We noticed that in Jira Cloud, outgoing mail settings only allow enable/disable, not custom SMTP configuration. Does this mean it’s not possible natively?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Phuong Do 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Instead of using the email handler intended for Software spaces have you looked at the option to specify an external (to Jira) email address in the JSM space configuration?

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/connect-multiple-email-addresses-to-your-service-project/#Add-an-external-email-address-for-receiving-requests

With regard to your questions:

1. Yes

2. Yes, see my suggestion above.

3. it is possible natively to specify a different reply-to email address when you configure the JSM space to use an external email address. Refer to

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-service-management-cloud/docs/manage-reply-to-address-for-your-service-project/

[Phuong Do]

Hi @Trudy Claspill 

Thank you very much for your response. Yes, we looked at the option to specify an external (to Jira) email address in the JSM space configuration and testing. But currently have concerns:

Outgoing notification email behavior

All customer notifications (such as request received, public comments added by agents, status updates, etc.) are sent from an Atlassian-managed email address with the @atlassian.net domain by default.

The external email address (the desired and customized mailbox) we connect to the project can only be used as the reply-to address (when customer reply back to us)

=>Solution can be: Configure Outgoing Notifications to Use Your Custom Email (Because it need the step to Copy and add DNS records the domain provider => is it required the support from IT team in the company?

[Trudy Claspill]

Yes, that solution would require support from from the IT team.