I need help finding a way to download all data from a JIRA project before losing access to it.
I’m working with a client who manages their testing through JIRA. We have ongoing discussions in ticket comments about which items are covered under our original contract versus additional paid work. The problem is this client often forgets previous agreements that were documented in JIRA comments.
Once our project wraps up in a few weeks, their admin will probably remove my access to the JIRA workspace. I’m worried they’ll then claim we agreed to do extra work for free, and I won’t be able to access the comment threads that prove otherwise.
Right now I’m manually saving individual tickets after they get resolved, but this takes me 30-40 minutes every day. I’m looking for an automated solution that can grab everything from the project at once.
Does anyone know of a tool or method to export all JIRA project content including tickets, comments, and attachments into a readable format like text or PDF? I need something that will preserve all the conversation history before I lose access.
check if your jira has the excel/word export addon - it’s way faster than doing it manually. if not, try browser automation tools like selenium to scrape the pages automatically. worst case, just print each ticket page to pdf. you can batch print multiple tabs at once which saves tons of time.
Been through something similar with a contractor dispute. Easiest way without coding is JIRA’s native export under Project Settings > Export. But you’ll only get basic issue data - comments usually get cut off. For complete extraction with full comment threads, I used Scriptrunner’s Export Utilities (if your JIRA has it). Better option though - ask the admin for a full project backup before you lose access. They can generate an XML backup with everything included. That’s what worked best for me since it’s complete and doesn’t need special permissions. Just say you need project docs for handover instead of mentioning disputes.
I’ve dealt with this exact problem before. The JIRA REST API works great for automating data extraction. If you’re comfortable coding, write a Python script using the jira-python library - it’ll pull all your issue comments, attachments, and metadata, then export everything to JSON or CSV. Just make sure you have your JIRA credentials and project key ready first. You can also try third-party tools like Better Excel Exporter or check JIRA Data Center’s built-in export options (depends on your access level and version). Don’t forget to check your company’s data export policies first so you don’t run into compliance problems.