Jira is creating new tickets for each message, even with identical subject

[Oswaldo Aguirre]

Hi, I need help, I am trying to get JIRA create a new ticket from the first message and then update same ticket with new messages received , even though the subject of each message is the identical.

I first configured an IMAP account, reading from an IMAP folder in gmail, where I moved all the messages related with all the tickets I wanted to try.

After configured the mail handler, to read even the ones with bulk precedence, I got one new ticket created in JIRA from each message, being it related or not, instead of updating the ticket with the same subject 

How to check and fix this?

thanks

[Oswaldo Aguirre]

Oh, sorry, yes, I created the handler with "create or comment". The emails are coming from an external source of tickets, with subject like:
RE: AB 12345 ABC222333444 - Filer A1B2C3B4 has taken over D5E6F7G8

now we have:

SO-190 - RE: AB 12345 ABC222333444 - Filer A1B2C3B4 has taken over D5E6F7G8

SO-106 - RE: AB 12345 ABC222333444 - Filer A1B2C3B4 has taken over D5E6F7G8

SO-103 - RE: AB 12345 ABC222333444 - Filer A1B2C3B4 has taken over D5E6F7G8

SO-104 - RE: AB 12345 ABC222333444 - Filer A1B2C3B4 has taken over D5E6F7G8

SO-189 - RE: AB 12345 ABC222333444 - Filer A1B2C3B4 has taken over D5E6F7G8

SO-188 - RE: RE: AB 12345 ABC222333444 - Filer A1B2C3B4 has taken over D5E6F7G8

I just replaced the actual numbers with non-disclosure information, but the tickets looks the same.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

So SO-190 is an existing issue in JIRA?

[Oswaldo Aguirre]

I assume it was created by Jira when it connected to the IMAP account and read the messages, we did not create those tickets, they started to appear after I configured the mail handler.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Well, that's what the "create" part of the handler is for, so that's right. But is SO-190 an existing issue?

[Oswaldo Aguirre]

Sorry, could not respond due to my "low points"... ok, now it is, after it connected to the imap server, it created all of those tickets, those did not existed before, if that's what you mean

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

So it is behaving correctly. When you get a new email, it creates an issue. When you want it to comment on an existing issue, you *must* include the issue id in the email subject.

[Oswaldo Aguirre]

but, we are receiving tickets from another source, the key comes in the subject of the email received from the provider of those tickets, I cannot include the issue ID as it is already there, it was generated by the "upper" ticketing system ...

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Right. Well, you can't do this with the built in handlers. You'll need to find/write a handler that matches incoming email on a duplicated subject, instead of looking for the JIRA issue id.

[Oswaldo Aguirre]

and how can that be done? now, I just tried with another imap account and same handler, but this time I moved only two related emails to the folder to be read by jira, it created the ticket and updated it, then I moved two more, and the internal ticket got update. I tried then moving 10 messages, 5 for one external ticket, and 5 for another external ticket, same source, different subjects between them, but exactly the same for the same external ticket. Jira created 10 new tickets ... seems like the subject parser cannot handle more than one subject at a time or something like that ... thanks for your comments

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The rules in the email handlers are simple. If it can identify an existing issue (by its JIRA key), it is a comment. If not, then it's a new issue. To write your own, have a look at https://developer.atlassian.com/jiradev/jira-architecture/building-jira-add-ons/jira-plugins2-overview/jira-plugin-module-types/message-handler-plugin-module

[Oswaldo Aguirre]

is there a way to merge those duplicated tickets?, convert them into one ticket, having all the duplicates as comments to the first one? is it possible? thanks

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm afraid there's no easy way to do this on Cloud.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Do the incoming emails contain the JIRA issue reference in the subject?

Are you definitely using a "create or comment" email handler, and not just a "Create"?