How do I add a Comment by sending an email to Jira Cloud?

[Kevin]

Hi, I am trying to set up a Mail Handler so that we can send an email to Jira Cloud and have it added as a Comment (and attach attachments) to the Issue.

I am aware of these and other articles however this has not resolved the issue for me;
https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver073/creating-issues-and-comments-from-email-861253784.html
https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA052/Creating+Issues+and+Comments+from+Email?_ga=2.249884037.222675531.1574145752-456666802.1574145752
https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Core-questions/How-To-Create-JIRA-Issue-by-Sending-Email-to-our-Cloud/qaq-p/61622

Our System Incoming Mail Settings are are such:
Default Cloud Mail Server Username: jira@mycompany.atlassian.net
We have two Mail Handlers set up:
Comments from emails
Cloud Email Handler
Default Cloud Mail Server
(Cloud Email Handler)

and

Add incoming email to Comments
Add a comment with the entire email body
Default Cloud Mail Server
(Add a comment with the entire email body)

The question I have is what email address do I send this email to? Is it to jira@mycompany.atlassian.net? (I assume I do not have to set up another POP3 mailbox)

eg.
To: jira@mycompany.atlassian.net
From: kevin@mycompany.com
Subject: PROJECT-123
Body: This is a test

I have tried this but it is not working. Any ideas where to look further?

Thank you
Kevin

[Petter Gonçalves]

Hello Kevin,

Thank you for reaching out.

I understand that you are not being able to add comments to existing issues through e-mail, however, the creation of issues is working just fine. Is that correct?

you are correct to presume that you don't need to set another POP3 e-mail box for the "Add incoming email to Comments" handler, you can select the Default Cloud mail server in the creation of the handler. In fact, the e-mail server handler should be appearing for you in the handler description:

 

That being said, I believe your problem must be caused by some permission or misconfiguration in the Handler. Please, follow the steps below to troubleshoot it:

1 - Check if the e-mail address trying to add the comment through e-mail to the issue can log in in JIRA and add it through the User interface

2 - If he is not allowed to do it, check if your handler is properly configured with a Default reporter or to create the user when the e-mail is sent

3 - Check if the e-mail is not creating a new issue instead of adding a new comment

4 - I see that the documentation you are using is related to JIRA server. Please, use the following Cloud documentation to configure your handler:

- Creating issues and comments from email 

5 - In case you still facing this issue, please provide us a screenshot of the e-mail you are sending with the comment (Displaying sender, subject, etc) and another screenshot of your handler properties, like the one I sent you.

Let us know if you have any questions.

[Kevin]

Hi @Petter Gonçalves, thank you for the reply and advice. The Jira Cloud user that was created has an Email Address of kevinvb@mweb.com. This is an alias. My Email actually comes from kevin.vanblerk@mweb.com so Jira Cloud rejects it. I created a new Jira Cloud user with an Email Address of kevin.vanblerk@mweb.com and tested it and it works, my Email is attached as a Comment. The Email Address the email comes from it seems must be the same as that of the user. Do you perhaps know if there is a way to allow all Email from any Email Address (possibly restricted to *@mweb.com) to send to Jira Cloud and have it added as a Comment? If not I will have to recreate many of our users with their actual Email address and not an alias.
Thank you
Kevin

[kevin.vanblerk]

Hi Petter, I'm trying to follow the instruction below,

"Receive emails from new users
To allow Jira to handle email messages sent from people without a Jira user account:
Create an anonymous or dummy mail account on your mail server.
Create an equivalent anonymous or dummy Jira user account, whose email address matches the mail account you just created. 
When configuring your mail handler options, set the Default Reporter to be the anonymous or dummy Jira user account."

if I create this dummy Jira User with the dummy Email Address and I set the Default Reporter as this dummy Jira account will this solve my question above? The reason I ask is if so why did it not work when I had my first account (kvanblerk@mweb.com) set as the Default Reporter?

[Petter Gonçalves]

Hello @kevin.vanblerk

Indeed, the workaround to add a dummy user as a default reporter should allow any external user to create issues in JIRA, not only from a specific alias.

About this question:

The reason I ask is if so why did it not work when I had my first account (kvanblerk@mweb.com) set as the Default Reporter?

In order to allow the handler to create issues when receiving comments from external users, the user that will be used as the default reporter should have all the permissions to create issues and comment on the existing issues of the project.

That being said, can you set the default reporter with the proper permissions in the project and test the handler again? 

[kevin.vanblerk]

Hi @Petter Gonçalves 
I have created a new Jira Cloud user called "kevin@mweb.com" with Trusted Access
This user has access to the jira-software-users group
In Settings -> Projects -> Main Menu -> People I added this user to our Portal Team
In Settings -> System -> Incoming Mail -> Mail Handlers I modified the Handler "Add received email to Comments" to include this "MWEB Comments" user and Saved

If I now send a test email with the Issue Number in the subject field to jira@*****.atlassian.net from several other mailboxes I own (including GMail) only the email from my valid email address (kevin.vanblerk@mweb.com) is added as a comment, nothing else is added. It seems the rule is still that only Comments are added if the email is sent from an email address that exists in Jira Cloud.
* I did a further test and invited my GMail email address to Jira Cloud and then sent another test from GMail and this was added to the Issue.

[Petter Gonçalves]

Hello Kevin,

Thank you for your details.

Can you please try to add a new email handler with the same details, but using the handler "Create a new issue or add comment to an existing issue"? 

Once you do it and configure the default reporter, try to create a new issue using an external user and them reply to the same notification e-mail (About the issue creation) to add a comment.

My suspicious is that something different is being added to the e-mail header, causing the e-mail to be ignored.

Let us know how the test went.

[kevin.vanblerk]

Hi @Petter Gonçalves 
I created a new Mail Handler with the Handler "Create a new issue or add comment to an existing issue". 

I used the same Default Reporter as before (MWEB Comments with email address kevin@mweb.com)



I sent 4 test emails to jira@mweb.atlassian.net from 4 different email addresses,
kevin.vanblerk@mweb.com (my Jira Cloud official account)
kevin@worldonline.co.za (not a Jira Account Account)
kevin.vanblerk@gmail.com (was a Jira Account I set up as a test but now Revoked)
kevin@pixelsandbits.co.za (not a Jira Cloud Account)

Only the test from kevin.vanblerk@mweb.com was added as a Comment, I have not even received a response from Jira Cloud to my other tests.

[kevin.vanblerk]

Hi @Petter Gonçalves 
I created a new Mail Handler with the Handler "Create a new issue or add comment to an existing issue". 

I used the same Default Reporter as before (MWEB Comments with email address kevin@mweb.com)



I sent 4 test emails to jira@mweb.atlassian.net from 4 different email addresses,
kevin.vanblerk@mweb.com (my Jira Cloud official account)
kevin@worldonline.co.za (not a Jira Account Account)
kevin.vanblerk@gmail.com (was a Jira Account I set up as a test but now Revoked)
kevin@pixelsandbits.co.za (not a Jira Cloud Account)

Only the test from kevin.vanblerk@mweb.com was added as a Comment, I have not even received a response from Jira Cloud to my other tests.

[kevin.vanblerk]

Hi @Petter Gonçalves 
I created a new Mail Handler with the Handler "Create a new issue or add comment to an existing issue". 

I sent 4 test emails to jira@mweb.atlassian.net from 4 different email addresses,
kevin.vanblerk@mweb.com (my Jira Cloud official account)
kevin@worldonline.co.za (not a Jira Account Account)
kevin.vanblerk@gmail.com (was a Jira Account I set up as a test but now Revoked)
kevin@pixelsandbits.co.za (not a Jira Cloud Account)

Only the test from kevin.vanblerk@mweb.com was added as a Comment, I have not even received a response from Jira Cloud to my other tests.