Importing from Jira helps you bring over stories and bugs without losing important history. Teams keep their project context, workflows, and assignments intact so they can continue working in Atono without having to start over.

You can choose how much to bring with you—from a lightweight import of just issues and teams, to a full migration that includes users directly involved in those issues, or even all members of the imported teams. From each project, stories and bugs are created as matching items, and the teams assigned to them are imported.

1. Access the import

Only Workspace Administrators and Workspace Owners can access the Jira import option.

In Atono, click your workspace's name in the header.
From the menu, select Settings.
Under Import to Atono, click Jira.

2. Choose what to import

Choose the scope of your import. This determines whether users are included and, if so, which ones.

Option 1 - Only Jira issues and teams

This option brings over Jira stories and bugs as matching items in Atono and recreates or matches the teams assigned to them. No user data is imported.

You’ll appear as the creator and comment author for all imported items.
Assignee fields remain empty.

Use this option if you want to quickly explore Atono with real project data without bringing users over yet.

Option 2 - Jira issues, teams, and users involved with issues

This option includes everything from Option 1 and adds users who were directly involved in the imported work—anyone who created, is assigned to, or commented on an imported issue. If those users belong to an imported team, they’re added to that team in Atono.

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CSV required: You’ll need to upload a Jira user export file in the next step to import users.

Choose this option to preserve key user context, like assignments and comment authorship, without importing entire teams.

Option 3 - Jira issues, teams, and all members of imported teams

This most complete option imports everything from Option 2 plus all other members of any team referenced by imported issues—even if they weren’t directly involved in those issues. This ensures team membership is fully preserved.

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CSV required: You’ll need to upload a Jira user export file in the next step to import users.

Choose this option if you want the most complete migration, including teams with all their members.

3. Connect to Jira

Next, connect your Jira Cloud account so Atono can retrieve projects and start the import. What you see on this screen depends on the import option you selected.

If you chose Option 1 - Import only Jira issues and teams

Provide your Jira instance URL. For example: https://yourdomain.atlassian.net
Enter your Jira email address. Use the email address you log in to Jira with. The account you use must have access to the projects you want to import. Atono retrieves the list of projects visible to that account through the Jira API. At minimum, the account needs one of the following permissions on each project:
- Browse project
- Project admin
- Jira admin

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If the account doesn’t have one of these permissions, the project won’t appear in the import list.

Create a Jira API token and enter it in Atono. The token lets Atono connect securely to your Jira instance. We recommend:

No scope restrictions — The token inherits the permissions of the Jira account you log in with. Keeping it unrestricted ensures you can choose from all eligible projects during import.
Short expiration — Short-lived tokens reduce risk if a token is ever exposed. You can generate a new one whenever you need to import again.

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The API token itself doesn’t control which projects are imported. Atono only retrieves the projects that the Jira account associated with the token has permission to see (browse, project admin, or Jira admin).

If you chose Option 2 or 3 - Import Jira issues, teams, and users

Follow the same steps as above, and then:

Upload a Jira user export file (CSV). Upload a CSV file exported by a Jira admin. It’s used only to create users in Atono and is discarded after import.

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Export tips
When exporting users from Jira for import into Atono:

Include all users in your site or organization to ensure everyone referenced in your projects is captured.

You can choose to include all users or only active users. Atono performs a best-effort match based on the email addresses in your CSV. If a user isn’t present in the export (for example, because they’re deactivated), they won’t be imported. Issues they created or commented on will list you as the creator or author, and any issues assigned to them will be unassigned.

Adding extra fields such as group membership or app access isn’t required for the import to work.

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Important: Email addresses in the Jira user CSV must be unique across all Atono workspaces. If any email is already associated with a different Atono workspace, validation will fail and you’ll need to edit the CSV before continuing.

4. Select projects to import

Once connected, you’ll see a list of projects that your Jira account can access.

Choose the Jira projects you want to bring into Atono. You can select one or more projects, or choose All projects.

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Only projects your Jira account has permission to access (browse, project admin, or Jira admin) will appear in the list.

Click Next to continue.

5. Review your import

Before issues are imported, Atono shows you how users and teams will map. This helps prevent surprises like duplicate users or unmapped teams.

Users

How users are handled depends on the import option you chose:

Option 1: Users are not imported. You will appear as the creator and comment author for all imported items, and assignee fields will remain empty.
Option 2: Atono matches Jira users who created, are assigned to, or commented on imported issues by email address.
Option 3: Atono imports all members of imported teams, in addition to those directly involved in the issues.

If a user doesn't already exist in Atono:

An inactive user with a Not invited status is created.
If you have available user seats in Atono, you can choose to send invitations during the import.
If you want to wait to invite them, they'll remain inactive until you send an invitation and they accept.

Once users accept the invitation, they’re automatically signed into Atono with their email address confirmed.

If you don't have enough user seats, you'll need to free up user seats by deactivating other users or adding more seats by upgrading your plan before you can invite additional users.

Validation errors: Duplicate emails

If any email addresses in your Jira user CSV are already associated with a different Atono workspace, the import stops and Atono shows an error listing the specific addresses causing the conflict.

To proceed:

Open your Jira user CSV file.
Find the email addresses listed in the error.
Remove those rows or update the email addresses.
Save the file and restart the import.

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Atono enforces unique email addresses across workspaces. A single email address can belong to only one workspace.

Teams

Teams are matched by name (case-insensitive). If a match is found, issues will be assigned to the existing team. If not:

A new public team is created (as long as you're under the 50-team limit).
The person performing the import will be added as the team admin.
No team members are added automatically.

If a team can't be imported—for example, because the workspace has reached the 50-team limit—those issues are still imported but left unassigned. Atono detects this during validation and shows a warning before you continue.

Stories will appear in Story refinement, at the bottom of the 'To do' step.
Bugs will appear in Bug triage, at the bottom of the 'Reported bugs' step.

If a team name from your Jira issues matches an existing team (case-insensitive and exact), issues will be assigned to that team. Atono won't create a duplicate.

6. Import issues

Once you've reviewed the information about your users, teams, and issues, click Next to perform the import.

Each Jira issue becomes a backlog item in Atono.

Issues

Only Jira stories and bugs are imported. Titles and descriptions are copied directly from Jira. Created and last updated dates are preserved. The Jira issue key is stored in the External ID field.

Creator / Reporter

A Jira issue's creator becomes the creator of a story or the reporter of a bug in Atono.

Assignee

A Jira issue's assignee is set to the bug or story's assignee in Atono, if that user was imported.

Workflow steps

Jira workflows vary across projects. Atono places issues into workflow steps using a combination of category mapping and name matching:

Issues with a 'To Do' status are placed in the team’s To do step.
Issues with an 'In Progress' status are placed in the first step categorized as In progress.
Issues with a 'Done' status are placed in the first step categorized as Done.
All other statuses are defaulted to To do.
If the Jira status matches the name of a workflow step (case-insensitive), that step is used instead.

Bug priorities

Jira bug priorities are converted into Atono risk ratings:

Jira priority	Probability	Impact	Risk Rating
Highest	5	5	25
High	4	4	16
No priority	3	3	9
Low	2	2	4
Lowest	1	1	1

Story points

If Jira story point estimates exist, they're converted to Atono shirt sizes, rounding up to the nearest size:

Jira Story points	Atono Shirt Size
1	XXS
2	XS
3	S
5	M
8	L
13	XL
21	XXL

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Jira Kanban projects don't use story points. If your projects are Kanban-based or don't include story point estimates, stories in Atono won't be sized.

Timestamps

Each imported issue keeps its original Created and Updated dates from Jira. These correspond to the Created and Last updated fields in Atono.

History

Atono adds an entry to the Activities section of each item noting:

That the item was imported from Jira.
The original Jira issue key (visible in the External ID column on the Everything page).
The issue's original priority or estimate from Jira.

7. Handle duplicates

If the same issues appear in multiple imports (based on the ID field), Atono prompts you to choose to:

Skip previously imported: Atono checks Jira issue key against the External ID field in Atono. If a match is found, that issue has already been imported, and no new item is created.
Include all: Atono imports everything in the file, even if some items were already imported. Duplicate issues will be added with new item IDs.

This gives you flexibility to retry imports or run them into different workspaces without losing control over duplicates.

8. Next steps

Once your Jira issues are imported, you can start exploring and organizing your data in Atono:

Review imported users and teams. Go to Manage users and Manage teams to check who was added and which teams were created or matched.
- The person who ran the import is automatically set as the team admin for any newly created teams. If someone else should manage the team, you can reassign reassign the team admin in the team settings.
Add users to teams. If imported issues aren't visible to the right teammates, make sure those users are added to the relevant teams.
Invite inactive users or add seats. Some users may have been added as inactive due to seat limits. You can invite them from the Manage users page after upgrading your plan or freeing up seats.
Browse imported stories and bugs. Use to the Everything page to explore all your imported stories and bugs. You can filter, sort, or search by fields like team, status, or item type—or use the External ID field to reference the original Jira issue key.

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External IDs
The External ID is populated automatically during import and stores the original Jira issue key. Use it to trace imported items back to their source or cross-reference them outside of Atono.
You can add it as a column on the Everything page or filter by it to find specific imported items.