How do I link an attachment in a comment with the new jira view?

[Istvan Hegedus]

On an existing issue, how can you link an attachment to a comment (on the same issue)? Can you please explain?

[Stefan Hermes · Accepted solution]

Same for me / good example of the inferiority of the new view vs. the old view:

• Linking to already uploaded files: Not possible
• Copy parts of / entire descriptions to a new item with the formating (without having to manually re-do the formating): Not possible 
• Way too much space in the item-view being consumed by the right half (Asignee, Reporter, etc) without the possibility to make make it smaller
• Formatting buttons not „floating“ anymore, resulting in lots of (!) scrolling needed.
• Linking issues to one another ("is blocked by", "relates to", ...): Way more difficult to find

Not sure what was wrong with the old view...

[Chris]

Finally they are working fixing this 

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-72208

judging by the bazillion watchers we might finally get a fix for this for this incredibly annoying issue.

[Jessica Leigh]

Another thing that's worse in the new view: the formatting buttons on the issue description should float down when you scroll (maybe in a collapsed state if they take too much space?) If you can't use markup-based editing you have to scroll up a long way to get to the tools if you have a long description with screenshots, etc.

[Stefan Hermes]

So true!

[Asher Wittenberg]

I second this motion! Drives me crazy

[Erik Jacobsen]

Really preferred the old view. Constantly running into little annoyances. Can't copy paste images into comments, can't attach existing attachments to new comments there are three scrollbars on one page when we have our checklist plugin enabled on the page...

[Jeff Conrad]

So if I've added an attachment to the ticket, and later I added on with this "image" attachment to a comment.  How do I decide which one to delete in the attachments section?  There is no longer any information about the date/time uploaded to know which is which.  There should be some information on hover or whatever.  We have big screens we can fit relevant information?

[Robert Ross]

It amazes me that they broke such fundamentally basic features that existed in the old version.  I've been sitting here trying to figure out how to do it and saying "Surely they couldn't have forgotten to allow me to reference an existing attachment from a comment?"  Unbelievable that they did.  So far I have not found a single thing on the new view that isn't inferior to the old one.  Why even fix something that wasn't broken, and then break it in the process?

[Jim Baker]

I recently noticed a workaround for images--rt-click the image in a previous comment, select Copy Image from the rt-click menu (in Firefox) then paste it in your comment. Doesn't help for docs and other file types, tho.

[Sunny Hagelberg]

Please add this ability to the new JIRA issue view.  Our team attaches many documents into one JIRA issue so we should be able to refer to the specific document in a comment. 

[Ed]

You can include a previous attachment now by opening the overflow menu and selecting the "Attachment on this issue" option. A dialog will show the list of attachments. Select one and the in-line attachment link will be inserted into the comment.

The "Add image, video, or file" icon uploads a new file as an attachment and inserts a link. To reuse an existing attachment, use the overflow menu.

[Jonathan Donley]

I really do not like the new view.  The Edit screen is gone and I cannot add existing attachments to the comment.  This is why I put off switching, now we are stuck with the new look.

[Jeff Conrad]

Agreed, why is the raw edit view removed?  It was too powerful?  Why remove capability?  Seems to be a downgrade.

[PC]

Atlassian SHOULD NOT FORCE the change over from old to new view.  If such issues remain, dont force users to change to new view.  I just hate new view.  it doesn't have the same functionality as the old view.  I still use old view and i am happy with it.  New view can go dig a hole and bury itself in there. 

[Jonathan Donley]

I totally agree.  The new view actually HURTS our productivity.  Please don't force us to use the new view.

[Isaac Murray]

Agreed, the new view is dreadful.

[PC]

Guys, try this.

SOLUTION (Short Term) TO SWITCH TO OLD VIEW

So now i believe new view is default but you can switch to old view via the 3 dots.  BUT that's such a waste of time.  Switching to old view for all your tasks.  If you like me where u have so many to monitor, switching each task is like hell.

I have a solution (maybe short term).  I have been using this for past few days and it works well.  So sharing for all you who wants to try this out.

PreQ:

• Chrome Browser or whatever browser u on
• Love Old View and Hate New View
• Need to switch to Old View without switching (hmmmm)

So add requestly https://requestly.io/ extension in your favourite browser (please don't say edge. i don't want to know).

Once installed, open the app. 

Import this rule. https://app.requestly.io/rules/#sharedList/1620860859887-JIRA-OLD-VIEW

Turn ON the rule

this just redirects the URL with old view URL.

Rule just redirects Jira url with ?oldIssueView=true

Anyway, try it.  if it helps, great.  One good deed done during work from home.

[Alessandro Basso]

A simpler way to turn the old view on on demand is through a Bookmarklet.

Simply create a new one in the browser Bookmarks bar named "JIRA Old View", then copy the following Javascript as URL value:

javascript:window.location.href=window.location.href+'?oldIssueView=true';

Click on it once you want to access an already loaded JIRA page with the old view.

To create a Bookmarklet, you can follow the instructions at this page: https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-are-bookmarklets/

[Daniel Fietta]

This is a known problem of the new issue view. You can still use the old behavior on the old issue view, though.

Please consider voting for the related Atlassian bug and feature request:

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-72208

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-70200

Hopefully, they will fix this before getting rid of the old view...

Cheers,
Dan
STAGIL 

[Jon]

Fix before being forced into the new layout doesn't look hopeful.

I just engaged support on this and they directed me to yet another bug, which is listed in their "Longterm backlog" with a Low priority. They have also told me, despite this functionality being central to our process, we cannot delay the new layout. We just have to deal with changing to the old view every time we need the functionality (multiple times in our hundreds of issues per month)

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-74152

[Deniz Damat]

[^attachment.txt] isnt working and files & images insert the same image second time. Wedont want insert a simple reference to already inserted image. We are new in JIRA Cloud and disappointed already, such simple and powerful feature doesnt exist. Programming this would take only half an hour, but it would save millions of hours...

[Joe D'Aquila]

When I try to manually type [^Test.txt] in the New View it literally gets committed like that.  If I then switch to the Old View and Edit that comment it shows it ACTUALLY committed like \[Test.txt] and put that backslash before it.

You can remove the backslash in the Old View but it simply doesn't give you that option in the New View.  

We need an escape character for that backslash.

[Bob Pederson]

This issue dates back to June of 2019 and is now at the point where it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth every time I use JIRA.  Our team is seriously considering switching to a competitor.

[Ilya Ilba]

Which competitor are you considering?

[Brian Sweet]

It's July 2021 and the only ways to reference an attachment in a comment are to either duplicate files or do the initial upload within a comment... Atlassian keeps making Jira less user-friendly...

[Anton Thelander]

[^attachment.txt] works both in description and in comments on Atlassian Jira v9.x.y. It sadly still doesn't open the regular attachment viewer but it at least opens the attachment.

[Sheeri Cabral]

I had an epic with over 30 user stories, and 6 testing files. Each user story used a different combination of 1-6 testing files. I attached the testing files to the epic, turned on "See the old view" - which just added this at the end of the URL:

?oldIssueView=true

And then I was able to copy/paste the 6 links, and use them in the descriptions of the user stories.

(I then had to figure out how to switch back to the new view, which I eventually realized I could do by taking the extra info out of the URL)

[Tatiane Pizzi]

Hi,

It is possible to insert the attachment using the old method by creating a transition and inserting a screen with an attachment field for upload.

For those who used to send attachments via API, it may happen that they do not recognize when the attachment is as an image by comments

[Tatiane Pizzi]

[Joe D'Aquila]

You cannot in the New View, without duplicating attachments. Switch back to the Old View seems to be the only (hopefully temporary) solution.

[Jurjen Roels]

It works when switching to the old view(right handsome ..) in issue. Then you can use de [^attachmentname.txt] in the new view you cannot add this.

[Stefan Hermes]

At least for me switching back to the old view is not possible anymore, so 

[elenushhh]

Hello, @Istvan Hegedus ,

From here

[Istvan Hegedus]

Hi @elenushhh 

Thanks for your response.

In this menu I found just some recently uploaded files. But I meant a file which was attached to the issue earlier. I thing there is some argument which can be used here but I could not find it. Or maybe I am wrong?

Istvan

[elenushhh]

@Istvan Hegedus Oh, I understand, there should be the attachments section,  which in your case is not displayed? 

If not, please click on "Create issue" and verify if the attachment is checked, form "Configure fields", maybe with the new issue view is not checked. If it's not displayed there, or cheked, you need to add it from screen config. 

Let me know if this was helpful or if I can help you with something else.

[elenushhh]

[Istvan Hegedus]

Hi @elenushhh 

I can see the attachment field and there are attachments I added some weeks earlier. In a comment I just wanted to refer to one of them by a link to it (to avoid searching it by the reader but just click to the link and open the attachment). I clicked to 'Files & images' you referred above but I could attach a new file or choose a recent file only but no chance to link any of the previously attached files.

I tried to copy URL of the actual attachment but couldn't do it (no such menu appears).

Now I have no more ideas. Is there any chance to put a direct link into the comment?

Istvan

[elenushhh]

@Istvan Hegedus I don't know how to help you with that, in my case we don't have so many attachments in a task, so it's easier to find them from the attachments section if we need something. But I will do a reasearch about it and maybe I can help you with this. :) 

[Victor Estilo]

Is there a solution to this? I'm on the same boat as Istvan too.

[Istvan Hegedus]

No, I haven't found any solution. I doubt it's possible in Jira.

[Faizan]

It was possible in JIRA server and such a simple yet powerful feature is not available in Cloud version, too bad

Doesn't make sense to re-upload already uploaded attachments to add them in comments.

[Mariam]

@Istvan Hegedus You can do so using [^attachment.txt] in the comments section.

[Jessica Leigh]

You can use [^attachment.txt] in the comments, but not in the description, where the WYSIWYG editor is the only option. I'd love to be able to switch to the old markup editor in cases like this.

This issue drives me crazy. I frequently add a bunch of example input files and then go to edit the description and discover I have to delete all the files that I just attached and add them again when I'm ready to link to them in the text. This is pretty consistently the reason I switch to back to the old Jira interface in my account preferences.

[Maurice Stassen]

Indeed this was possible before. Why is this broken ???

[Anton Passiouk]

Same here, it was a very useful feature, please put it back.

[Yomal De Silva]

Trying to achieve the same here. Seems like it's not possible in the current version. Hope this gets re-implemented. It looks like a basic feature to me.

[Mitch Burghart]

Referencing attachments in comments and descriptions is strongly desired.  This is another example of an important feature lost or obscured with the "new" Jira view.  

[Bob Janssen]

While creating a comment, click on the "Files & images" icon to attach a file or image directly to the comment. You can even select files and images that are already attached to the Jira issue.

[Mitch Burghart]

Yes, I've tried the Files & images button before. When you click on Files & images it presents a rectangle area for uploading new files and a large collection of files already uploaded for any Jira story. Maybe the file that I want to reference is somewhere in the large collection of files.  If you are willing to fish through the files to find the one you want the result is a thumbnail image in the comment.  What I really wanted was descriptive text and the URL link to the attachment. (Like Ctrl-K if you could somehow discover the URL link to the attachment.)

For me it would be easier to use if you could see just the collection of files for the specific Jira story and its associated sub-tasks as options. (Maybe also showing the other uploads as options but in a separate secondary grouping.) And there should be a method to make a reference as a descriptive text link instead of a thumbnail image.

[Dave Cavell]

I suggest you duplicate the file by re-uploading.

[Dave Marley]

From what I can tell, [^attachment.txt] does not work in comments either. This used to work (in Jira Server at least) in Description and Comments, and was such an easy, succinct way to add a link to an attachment. Please bring this simple capability back. 

I agree as well that the new look is worse and it seems like we get less functionality/capability with new versions, not more. I wish I could revert back to an earlier version.

[Jim Baker]

+1

In the service desk, I often need to reference an already-uploaded image in a comment to a customer.  It seems silly to need to download it from the same request, then upload it again to do this, it used to be easy because the attach tool on the editing panel brought up the list of already attached items.

Regards,

Jim

[Stephen Dixon]

@Dave Marley : you can by going to the 3-dots top-right and the last option is to See the old view: 

Then type in some feedback as to why you are reverting. 

I commented new views are nice, but only if they retain existing functionality. 

[Anton Thelander]

[^attachment.txt] works both in description and in comments on Atlassian Jira v9.x.y. It sadly still doesn't open the regular attachment viewer but it at least opens the attachment.