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?