Possible to preview attachments?

Question

I am in process of migrating a client from JIRA Cloud to an on-premise install.  I have been able to export/import the issues and attachments from the cloud instance and my client is just poking around on the on-premise instance before we make the cutover.

Once thing he has noticed is that attachments in issues in the on-premise do not preview, but they do in the cloud.

I couldn't find any settings to control this behaviour, and am wondering if this is just a cloud feature or if there is a setting that is off by default that I need to enable?  (And if so, where is that feature located?)

I have searched on this and can find posts about Confluence and JIRA Cloud but not JIRA server (on-premise)

Your input is greatly appreciated! :-)

nealfisc · Answer

It is our understanding that Jira Data Center does not support file attachment previews of Office formats.  While PDF and static image attachments maybe opened in modern browsers, Office formats require downloading a local copy, then using MS365 to view the file.  Aside from a poor UX given delays associated with attachment viewing, a larger concern is creating digital copies of company with employee data.  I believe Atlassian Data Center Jira file attachment process increases threats of InfoGov and Privacy data loss concerns with remote users downloading local copies.

Atlassian Admin_k8l2mm · Answer

OK, so I just had a chance to log in to both the cloud instance and the server instance and look at an issue that is on both.  It looks like the confusion is the fact that the server instance shows "attachments" (as well as embedding them in the issues) whereas the cloud instance does not have a separate "attachments" section.

I have attached screenshots showing the two views of the same issue in both instances.

So I guess the question is, in the server instance, can the thumbnails in the "attachments" section show a preview of the image or video that it is?

Atlassian Admin_k8l2mm · Answer

Thank you for the reply, Petter.

"Enable Thumbnails" is on in the Attachments settings.  My client is using Chrome on the same PC when connecting to both the cloud and server instances.

The particular file in question that he noticed it with is an MP4 video file.  In the cloud instance, it plays in the thumbnail, vu in the server instance it doesn;t even show an picture in the thumbnail, but clicking onn it does play the video in another tab.

In general, the server instance doesn't actually show the actual thumbnail images, but generic placeholder icons indicative of the type of file it is.

Once I get the cloud credential (re-)sent to me by the client, I will get you the additional information you asked for comparing the same file(s) in the cloud and server instances.  I should hopefully be able to get that to you sometime tomorrow.