Comment by reporter displayed as another user
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Summary
Comments added via email from the reporter on tickets in a service project show to be added by another user in the comment section of the ticket.
Solution
Investigating incorrect reporter display
This behavior occurs when a specific configuration has been applied with the following conditions:
The sender of the email does not have application access.
An email request channel has been configured for the project to receive and process incoming mail.
The same email address is used in a global mail server configuration.
A global mail handler has been configured to use the mail server above, has a default reporter set, and "Create Users" is not selected.
When looking at the "Processing log" for the email request channel you will find that when the comment is added by the reporter it is not registered in the log events.
Path: Jira Administration > Applications > Email channels > select "View log" for the email channel in question > select the "Processing log".
Explanation for the incorrect reporter behavior
The cause for this behavior is due to over-configuring the email integration for the Jira service project.
When setting up a "Email request channel" for a service project there is no need to also configure a global mail server/mail handler. When a global mail handler is configured to use the same mailbox as the email request channel it will result in multiple mail puller jobs pulling mail from the same mailbox. These mail pullers are set to run on a set interval but they don't run at the exact same time. If the mail puller for the global mail handler runs before the email request channel mail puller, while the email sent is in an unread state, then it will pull the email > mark it as read > and then it will be processed according to the global mail handler logic instead of the email request channel logic.
Why this is important is the global mail handler uses licensing requirements as it processes emails sent to the mailbox being used. If the sender of the email does not have application access (a Jira License) then it will either create a user account, if "Create Users" has been enabled, or it will use the "Default Reporter" to process the email. If a "Default Reporter" is not configured and "Create Users" is not enabled then the email will be rejected due to the sender not having a valid Jira license.
Fixing reporter display problems
To fix this issue, the global mail server/mail handler that is configured to use the same mailbox as the email request channel must be deleted.
After these have been removed the comments will be added to the ticket with the proper author consistently.
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