Email formatting

Question

Hello,

I noticed that on Jira Service Management Cloud, when a customer sends a richly formatted email (not from the portal), the ticket comes out degraded: inline images become "Preview unavailable" (kept only as attachments), bullet/numbered lists are flattened and signatures are not handled well.

Is there a native setting to preserve the original HTML formatting and inline images in the ticket body? If it's a known native limitation, which Cloud-compatible Marketplace app do you recommend for faithful rendering of complex incoming emails?

I tried things like activating HTML parsing and already tested a Marketplace app (Email This Issue). It ois better but I did not manage yet to keep the format. If you could provide any help about that I'd take it. Thank you in advance.

Zalán Balhási _META-INF_ · Answer

Hi @Serigne,

"Preview unavailable" images plus flattened lists are expected on JSM Cloud, because the native email channel converts each incoming message into Jira's stored rich-text format (ADF). There is no native setting that preserves the original HTML with full fidelity, so this part is a platform limitation rather than something you configured wrong.

You are right that Email This Issue gets you closer, and it helps to know why it still is not pixel-perfect: the Jira issue body itself is ADF, so a byte-for-byte HTML render inside the description or a comment is not achievable in any Cloud app. What Email This Issue can do is make sure nothing is lost. In the mail handler, on the Create Issue and Add Comment actions:

* Set Attachment handling to "Always add" so embedded images arrive as attachments instead of being skipped.

* Turn on "Attach the original email as .eml file". The handler then attaches the full original message to the issue, so the ticket always keeps an exact copy of what the customer sent, formatting and inline images intact, even where the Jira body renders it plainly.

Disclosure: I work on Email This Issue (Marketplace listing), but the native behavior above applies whichever tool you end up using.

Gabriela - LeanZero · Answer

Hi @Serigne, on your first question, no, not natively. The HTML email parsing setting you already switched on only picks between wiki markup and plain text, and that is its full documented range.

Which project type are you on? That page documents company-managed only, so if you're team-managed the Space settings path Arek gave you may not even be there.

If you do reach the signature control, watch the custom text option. Anything you specify that also appears above the signature hides everything below that point.

On the app question I don't have one I'd recommend. You've already got further with Email This Issue than a guess from me would take you.

Arkadiusz Wroblewski · Answer

Hello @Serigne

The symptoms you described also correspond to known limitations:

JSDCLOUD-12462 tracks distorted or incorrectly rendered inline images in requests received through email.

JSDCLOUD-16473 tracks embedded images in detected signatures appearing as Preview unavailable.

JSDCLOUD-8105 tracks HTML parsing problems with nested tables and complex email layouts.

Here you have some Informations Hide email signatures from the work item view and portals | Jira Service Management Cloud | Atlassian Support

You can download the original message used by JSM from:

Space settings → Email requests → View logs → Processing log → Download raw email message

Comparing that .eml file with the resulting Jira Description will show the issue originates in the sender’s MIME structure or during Jira’s conversion.

Best,

Arek🤠