Why my customers when creating an issue, as approvers see only themselves?

[Ljubisa Rebic]

I’m experiencing a persistent issue with approvals in Jira Service Management and would appreciate any guidance.

I’ve carefully configured the entire setup — fields, workflows, request types, and automation — but there's one problem I can't resolve:

Issue
For several request types, customer approval is required.
When I, as an administrator/agent, create a ticket, I can see all eligible approvers from the group assigned to the approval step. Everything works normally on the agent side.

However, when customers create a ticket, the Approvers field only shows themselves. They cannot see any of the actual approvers from the designated group, which makes it impossible for them to select the correct approver.

I don’t understand why customers are shown only themselves, and not the full list of approvers, even though permissions and groups appear to be configured correctly.

What I need help with
Why can customers only select themselves in the Approvers field?

What configuration controls visibility of approver options for portal customers?

Is there a specific permission, project setting, or UI change in the latest JSM (Atlassian 2025 update) that affects customer approver selection?

Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Karim Belhadj · Accepted solution]

Welcome @Ljubisa Rebic ,

This is actually expected behavior in Jira Service Management.

Portal customers cannot browse or select internal users or groups. When the Approvers field is shown on the portal, customers will only ever see themselves, even if the approval step is configured with a group. The full list of approvers is resolved internally by Jira after the request is created.

PS:

• Customers can’t search or pick internal users or groups for approvals

• Group-based approvers work only behind the scenes, not as a selectable list on the portal

• There’s no permission or setting to change this behavior (it’s by design, not a 2025 UI change)

Common workaround:

• Hide the Approvers field from the portal

• Use workflow configuration or automation to set approvers automatically

• If customer input is needed, use a dropdown field and map it to approvers via automation

If this answers your question, feel free to accept the solution so others can find it easily.

[Christos Markoulatos · Accepted solution]

Hi @Ljubisa Rebic welcome!

The Approvers field in Jira Service Management is a user picker restricted by the customer role in the portal, meaning that when a customer creates a request, they can only select users who are added as customers in the same project and belong to the same organization (if organizations are enabled), internal users or groups such as agents and designated approvers are not visible because portal visibility is intentionally limited for security and privacy reasons.

One option is to create a custom dropdown field (e.g. “Select Approval Group”) with predefined choices like Finance, HR, or IT. Customers select the relevant option when creating a request, and an automation rule then maps that choice to the actual Approvers field internally, assigning the correct internal users without revealing their identities on the portal.

Alternatively, you can use Assets to store approver groups as objects with attributes such as Jira group or user list. Customers select an object through an Assets field on the portal, and automation uses the selected object to look up the corresponding internal approvers and populate the Approvers field. This approach is dynamic and easier to maintain because approver lists can be updated in Assets without changing the automation logic.

Hope this helps!