For Jira to retrieve emails and create issues from them, you need to add the POP/IMAP mail server configurations to Jira. POP and IMAP are mail protocols that are used to retrieve emails from the server. Email clients, such as Microsoft Outlook, use one of these protocols to retrieve your emails.
Unlike outgoing mail servers, Jira allows you to add multiple incoming mail servers. This is because while you only need one mail server to send emails, you may have multiple mail servers or multiple mail accounts (on the same server) that people will use to send emails to. For example, you might have one that's dedicated to providing support and another one for sales. It is usually a good idea to create separate mail accounts to make it easier when trying to work out which email can go into which project. For this reason, adding POP/IMAP mail servers can be thought of as adding multiple mail accounts in Jira. Perform the following steps to add an incoming mail server:
- Browse to the Jira administration console.
- Select the System tab and then the Incoming Mail option.
- Click on the Add POP/IMAP Mail Server button.
- Enter a name and description for the mail server.
- Select the type of mail service provider. For example, if you are using your own hosted mail service or one of the recognized cloud providers such as Google.
- Specify the hostname of the POP/IMAP server if you are using your own (custom provider).
- Enter the username/password credentials for the mail account.
- Click on the Add button to create the POP/IMAP mail server:
