Export work items for Jira

Setup and usage

Export any set of Jira work items to Excel or CSV, with any fields you choose. The file is built in your browser and never sent anywhere.

Installing

The app runs on Jira Cloud. Install it from the Atlassian Marketplace, or in Jira under Settings → Apps → Explore more apps. Installation needs Jira administrator rights.

Granting the export permission

Seeing work items on screen and downloading them to a computer are different things, and the app treats them that way. A file, once saved, is outside Jira and Jira’s permissions no longer apply to it.

So the app adds its own Jira global permission, Export work items. Find it in Jira settings → System → Global permissions, where it sits alongside Jira’s own permissions. By default only administrators have it.

To let others export, scroll to Grant permission at the bottom of that page, choose Export work items, pick a group, and press Add. Nothing new to learn — it is granted exactly like any other Jira permission, and revoked the same way.

Where to find it

Two places, for two different moments:

• Apps → Export work items in the main navigation — for when you are planning an export and want to choose the source yourself.
• The Apps menu on the search screen — for when you have already found what you need. Search in Jira as usual, open the Apps menu above the results and choose Export to Excel or CSV. The current search is used as the source, so there is no need to retype anything.

Exporting from search always exports everything the search returned, not just the rows visible on the page.

Choosing what to export

On the app’s own page there are three sources:

• A space — everything in one space. The simplest choice, and the one most people need.
• A filter — Jira’s built-in filters such as My open work items, plus your own saved filters. If a saved filter has columns configured in Jira, the app picks them up as your starting selection.
• A JQL query — anything you can search for in Jira, you can export. Note that JQL itself still uses the older keywords project and issue.

How many? tells you the approximate number of rows before you commit to a large export.

Choosing columns

The column list holds every field your Jira has, including your own custom fields — not a fixed set. On a working corporate site that can be several hundred, so the list has a search box and can be sorted.

• Search matches field names, types and identifiers.
• Sort by Field or Type by clicking the column heading. Sorting by type answers the most common question — “where are all the dates?”. A third click returns the default order.
• The default order puts what you need on top: the columns you have chosen, then custom fields that actually contain values in this particular set of work items, then everything else alphabetically.
• A field’s identifier is shown as a tooltip. Jira sites often have two custom fields with the same name, and the identifier is the only way to tell them apart.
• The order in which you tick fields is the order of columns in the file.

Your selection is remembered in your browser, so the report you run every week does not have to be reassembled every week. Reset to default forgets it and returns the twelve standard columns.

Excel or CSV

Export to Excel produces a real XLSX file. Use it unless you have a reason not to: columns land in columns on every machine, regardless of the regional settings of whoever opens it.

Export to CSV produces a UTF-8 file with a byte order mark, so non-Latin text opens correctly in Excel. Be aware that Excel decides how to split a CSV using the list separator from the operating system’s regional settings — which is exactly the problem XLSX does not have.

The file is named after what you exported and the date, for example My open work items-2026-08-17.xlsx, so a folder full of exports still makes sense a week later.

Size and time

The ceiling is one million rows, just below Excel’s own limit of 1,048,576. If an export reaches it, the app says so and gives you the first million rather than a broken file.

Large exports take minutes: Jira is read a page at a time, and the progress bar shows how far along it is. Keep the tab open until it finishes — the file is assembled in the browser, so closing the tab stops the work.

If Jira asks the app to slow down, the app waits and counts down, then continues on its own. Nothing is lost; it simply takes longer.

Troubleshooting

“You are not allowed to export”. You do not have the Export work items permission. Send the screen to a Jira administrator — it names the permission and the exact place to grant it.

The CSV opens as one column in Excel. Excel is splitting on a separator your regional settings define as something other than a comma. Export to Excel instead; XLSX has no such ambiguity.

Jira rejects the JQL. The message shown comes from Jira itself and usually says precisely what is wrong. A query with no conditions at all is refused as unbounded — add a condition, for example project IS NOT EMPTY.

A field I need is not in the list. Fields with no usable type are hidden, as are thumbnails. If a custom field is missing entirely, check with an administrator that it exists on the site rather than only in one project’s screen configuration.

The export is empty. The query matched nothing, or it matched only work items you cannot see. The app never shows anyone more than Jira would.

Permissions and data

The app requests one permission: read work items. It holds no write permission of any kind, so it cannot create, change or delete anything in Jira, and it has no storage permission at all.

Every request is made as the signed-in user, so nobody sees a work item they could not already open themselves. The file is assembled in your browser and downloaded straight to your computer — it is never sent to us or to anyone else.

Full detail is in the privacy policy and the data processing agreement.

Still stuck?

Write to support@goor.email. Tell us what you were exporting and what happened — we answer within two business days.