Update a client email address

[Robert Carbonell]

Hello Atlassian support.

I was trying to update a client's email address in Jira Service Management following a name change due to marriage. The client's email was updated on their company's end from FirstName.LastName1 anywhere.com to FirstName.LastName2 anywhere.com.

I searched for the user's profile in Jira, clicked the three-dot menu, and selected "Edit full name", but found no option to update the email address. From what I can tell, Jira does not allow direct editing of a user’s email once the account is created.

To work around this, I had to manually create a new user account with the updated email address. I then asked the user to complete registration with the new email. Afterward, I reviewed how many tickets were associated with the old email. Fortunately, there were only 5: 1 open ticket and 4 closed.

I manually updated each ticket by opening it and changing the Reporter field to the new email (FirstName.LastName2 anywhere.com).

If there’s a better method to handle this type of email transition, ideally something smoother or automated, could you please provide documentation or guidance on the recommended process

This should be a standard option.

[Dan Breyen]

Hi @Robert Carbonell right now, you did it right. I found this Support article on changing-jsm-customer-email-address and the way you did it was the recommended procedure.   JSDCLOUD-5746 was submitted to make this process easier.  I would recommend voting for and watching it for updates.  

The one thing that could have sped up the process would be to do a Bulk Change of all 5 work items at once to the new reporter.  

Don't forget to suspend the old account, so that one isn't in use anymore.

Hope that helps.

[Robert Carbonell]

Hi @Dan Breyen 

Thank you, I voted.

Atlassian, this was created 19/Nov/2017 8:45 PM seven years ago.

This should be a standard process in your application. I cannot see myself in the future with an email account that had created thousands of tickets and manually assigning it to the new email. 

[Thomas]

✅ Problem: Migrating Reporter Accounts in Jira Service Desk

I had the same issue and resolved it using two Power Automate flows. Here's how:

🛠️ Preparation

• Create an Excel file with a table containing:
  • Old Email Address
  • New Email Address
• Add/invite the new users to the Jira Service Desk project.
• Wait ~5 minutes before running Flow 1. The Jira API may not immediately recognize new accounts.

🔁 Flow 1: Collect User IDs

1. Read all rows from the Excel table.
2. Loop through each row and get the old user ID:

   GET https://domain.atlassian.net/rest/servicedeskapi/servicedesk/<servicedesk>/customer?query=<OLDemailaddress>

   Add the old user ID to the Excel table.
3. Loop again and get the new user ID:

   GET https://domain.atlassian.net/rest/servicedeskapi/servicedesk/<servicedesk>/customer?query=<NEWemailaddress>

   Add the new user ID to the Excel table.

🔁 Flow 2: Update Reporter on Tickets

1. Read all rows from the Excel table.
2. For each row:
   • Get all tickets reported by the old user:

     GET https://domain.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/search/jql?jql=project in (PROJECTKEY) and reporter=<OLDUSERID>&fields=key

   • Loop through each ticket and update the reporter:

     PUT https://domain.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/issue/<key>
     {
       "fields": {
         "reporter": {
           "id": "<NEWUSERID>"
         }
       }
     }

💬 Final Thoughts

• Is it ugly? Yes.
• Are there better ways? Probably.
• Does it work? Absolutely.

[Robert Carbonell]

Hello @Thomas 

WOW! This is GREAT!

Thanks for sharing.