Guide

How to set up email requests in Jira Service Management

For Jira Service Management Cloud · Updated November 2026

Short answer: go to your service space's Channels & self service → Email. Either create an Atlassian address (like support@yourcompany.atlassian.net) or connect your own Google or Microsoft mailbox. Pick a request type with only Summary and Description required. Then check who's allowed to email you, and send a test. The details below cover each step and the problems that usually show up in the first week.

Step 1: Choose which address customers write to

You have two options, and you can use both. A service space can have up to 10 connected addresses.

Step 2: Connect it

1. Open your service space and go to Channels & self service → Email. You need to be a Jira admin or space admin.
2. For an Atlassian address: select Create Atlassian email, enter a prefix such as support, choose a request type, then select Create.
3. For Gmail or Microsoft 365: select Add external email, choose your provider, then Continue with Google or Continue with Microsoft. Sign in to the mailbox in the new tab.
4. For other providers: select Add external email → Continue with Other and enter the mailbox details.

For Google and Microsoft (and IMAP) mailboxes you can also choose Start processing emails from, up to 7 days back. This catches emails that arrived just before you connected it.

Step 3: Pick the right request type

Every connected address creates requests of one request type. Choose one where only Summary and Description are required. If the request type has any other required field, emails can't fill it in, so the request isn't created. This is the most common reason "emails aren't turning into tickets".

The email subject becomes the summary and the body becomes the description. Attachments are added to the request. Emails over 25 MB in total, including attachments, aren't fetched at all.

Step 4: Decide who can email you

• Open: anyone who emails becomes a customer and gets a request. Best for external support. Expect some spam.
• Restricted: only people already added as customers can raise requests. Best for internal IT. Everyone else's emails are rejected.

Set this in your space's customer permissions. Two more controls sit under Channels & self service → Email → More:

• Blocklist: addresses or whole domains that are never turned into requests. Matching is exact: blocking example.com doesn't block mail.example.com, and wildcards aren't supported.
• Allowlist: domains you always accept.

Step 5: Test it properly

Jira checks the mailbox about once a minute. Send these from an outside address, not your own admin account:

1. A new email: a request should appear in your queue, and the sender should get the confirmation email.
2. A reply to that confirmation: it should be added as a comment on the same request, not create a new one. Replies are matched by the request key in the subject, so keep it there.
3. A new email with a colleague in CC: the colleague is added as a request participant, if your permissions allow it.
4. An email with an attachment: check it arrives on the request.

If something doesn't arrive, check the email processing logs. They show emails that were rejected, for example because they failed sender checks (DMARC), the sender wasn't allowed, or a required field was missing.

Problems you'll probably hit in week one

Want it done for you?

I set up Jira Service Management for small and mid-size teams, including email, portal, queues, SLAs and automation, for a fixed price. See the setup service, or email support@queuetidy.com.