Duplicate Account Issues in Jira Service Management Cloud

Platform Notice: Cloud Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps on the cloud platform.

Summary

Learn how to resolve issues caused by duplicate accounts in Jira Service Management (JSM) Cloud to ensure smooth access and permissions.

Duplicate accounts may be the cause if a user:

  • Can't be assigned work items despite the Service Desk Team role.

  • Can't log in to the customer portal.

  • Appears twice in user-picker fields/filters.

  • Can't see their own requests.

  • Isn't receiving notifications properly.

  • Can't submit work items by email.

Understand duplicate accounts

A user has duplicate accounts when an Atlassian account and a portal-only customer account exist for the same email address in your site.

This occurs when the user is invited to the site as a portal-only customer account, and an Atlassian account using the same email address is added afterward, creating duplicate accounts for the same user.

Solution

First, identify whether the user actually has duplicate accounts (steps below), then apply the fix (migrate the portal-only customer to an Atlassian account). Running the migration without confirming duplicates first can be unnecessary.

Fix a duplicate account problem

You need to migrate the portal-only customer to an Atlassian account.

Identify if a user has duplicate accounts

This procedure is different depending on your site's user management experience.

If in Admin.atlassian.com

You're on

Use these steps

Users are under Directory

Centralized

Centralized steps

Users are under Apps > <sitename>

Original

Original steps

Centralized steps

  1. Go to <sitename>atlassian.net/admin.

  2. Select Directory > Users.

  3. Filter for the corresponding account's email address.

    1. If it doesn't show up as an active account, the user has no duplicate accounts and you can skip the next steps.

    2. If it shows up, proceed to the next step.

  4. Select Products at the top menu.

  5. Click your site's name under the sites and products section on the sidebar.

  6. Choose the Portal-only customers.

  7. Filter for the account's email address on the portal customers page.

    1. If it doesn't appear or appears with the Inactive status, there are no duplicate accounts for this user.

    2. If it appears and has the Active status, the user indeed has duplicate accounts.

Original steps

  1. Go to <sitename>atlassian.net/admin.

  2. Select Users.

  3. Filter for the corresponding account's email address.

    1. If it doesn't show up as an active account, the user has no duplicate accounts, and you can skip the next steps.

    2. If it shows up, proceed to the next step.

  4. Choose Jira Service Management option from the sidebar.

  5. Filter for the account's email address on the portal customers page.

    1. If it doesn't appear or appears with the Inactive status, there are no duplicate accounts for this user.

    2. If it appears and has the Active status, the user indeed has duplicate accounts.

Verification steps

  • After migrating, confirm the user no longer appears as an Active portal-only customer for that email (re-run the identify steps — the portal entry should now be absent or Inactive).

  • Confirm the user can now be assigned tickets and can see their requests in the portal.

Related content

The following feature request relates to the problem described in this article:

To prevent Duplication of accounts:

Updated on June 25, 2026

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