How to avoid duplicate tickets due to changed subject-line?

Question

We deal with the problem that often customers reply via e-mail and the subject-line is automatically changed by a prefix e.g. "AW: [...]", "Re: [...]" etc. This results in creating a new ticket instead of adding the message as a new comment to the existing ticket.

Is there any solution to teach Jira Service Desk to ignore these prefixes by just focussing on the issue-key? Or a smart way to merge the new with the old ticket rather then linking them?

Jack Brickey · Answer

I Agree with Fabio here on the prefix not influencing this. Below is a recent thread where an Atlassian (Andrew Heinzer) answered this more completely.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Desk-questions/How-does-Jira-link-an-incoming-email-to-an-existing-Issue/qaq-p/983509

Fabio Racobaldo _Catworkx_ · Answer

Non-customer comments

In previous versions of JIRA Service Desk, when a person who was not already a customer or participant on a request replied to an email related to an existing request within that service desk, that reply would create a new request. This could be confusing for both the customer and the agents involved in the request.

We've now added an option on the Email requests page which allows the service desk admin to decide if they want to allow non-participants and external people to comment on existing requests via email. When enabled, and if your service desk allows public sign-up, we'll add the comment and create a customer account for the email sender. If public sign-up is disabled, we'll disregard the email.

Fabio Racobaldo _Catworkx_ · Answer

Hi @Raphael R.,

prefix should not be the problem. If the subject contains an existing issue key, email should be added as comment.