How to export Jira to Excel, past the 1,000-issue limit

To export Jira to Excel, you export a search, not a board: Jira's export is a CSV of the issues a filter finds, and Excel opens it. This guide covers the export itself, which fields to take, how to get past the 1,000-issue limit without an app, and how to tidy the file once it's open. Jira now calls issues work items, and its menus say so; this guide says issues, as most people still do.

1. Search for the issues. Go to Filters › Search work items, and narrow the list with the filters or a query. To export a filter you saved, open it from Filters.
2. Open the export menu. Select More actions (the ⋯ button), then Export.
3. Pick a CSV. Choose a CSV with the current fields or with all fields (the next section says which). Excel opens a Jira CSV like any spreadsheet.

You can also export from a project: open its List view, narrow the filter, and use the same More actions › Export menu. Either way, the file holds the issues your search shows, so set the filters before you export, not after.

This is the choice that decides how usable the file is.

• Current fields gives you the columns your search shows. Add or remove columns in the search first, and the export follows. Atlassian recommends this one: export only the fields you need.
• All fields gives you every field, including each comment, in a column of its own headed Comment, oldest first. Atlassian warns that it can make the export slow and the file large. Take it when you need the comments, and expect a very wide sheet.

Jira writes the file as UTF-8. If names with accents turn into odd characters in an older Excel, import the file instead of opening it, and choose UTF-8 as its encoding.

Atlassian's help describes exporting from search and from a project's List view, not from a board. So search for what the board shows, and export that. For a project's board, that is its project; for the sprint in progress, add the open sprint:

project = APP AND sprint in openSprints()

Replace APP with your project's key. Add Status to the search's columns and choose current fields, so the sheet shows where each issue stands.

Per Atlassian, the CSV export from search can take up to 10,000 issues when it runs in the background: you'll see a progress bar at the bottom left, you can leave the page, and a notification brings the download link when it's ready. The other export types, and a CSV that doesn't run in the background, stop at 1,000.

Past 10,000, export in batches. Split the search by when issues were created, so each part finds fewer than 10,000, for example:

• project = APP AND created < "2025-01-01"
• project = APP AND created >= "2025-01-01" AND created < "2026-01-01"
• project = APP AND created >= "2026-01-01"

Export each part with the same fields, so the columns line up, then paste them one under another in a single sheet and delete the repeated heading rows. Add up the rows and compare them with the count your full search shows: Atlassian suggests checking, so that nothing is missed or counted twice. Removing duplicates on the Issue key column catches an issue that falls on a boundary.

Comments always come this way in an all-fields export: Comment, Comment, Comment, one per comment. Any field that holds several values may too, so if you see Labels or Sprint more than once, it is the same thing. To get one cell per issue, put this in a new column, pointing at the first and last of the repeated columns (here F to H), and fill it down:

=TEXTJOIN(", ", TRUE, F2:H2)

Then copy the new column, paste it back as values, and delete the originals. TEXTJOIN is in Excel 2019 and later, and in Google Sheets; in an older Excel, join the cells with & and commas.

If the Created or Updated column sorts alphabetically rather than by date, Excel read the dates as text. Select the column, use Data › Text to Columns, and on the last step choose Date with the order your file uses (look at a day above 12 to tell day from month). Format the result as a date. If the times matter, check one row against the issue in Jira before you rely on them.

A sub-task is a row like any other issue. To keep it next to its parent, add the Parent field to the search's columns before you export, then sort the sheet by the parent first and the issue key second. Rows with no parent are the top-level issues.

For merged cells, numbers stored as text and other paste problems, the general fixes for pasted lists in our guide to exporting a list from any site apply here too.

• Save the search as a filter, with its columns, so next sprint is one export and the columns come out in the same order.
• Keep a Raw tab and a Report tab. Paste each new export into Raw, and keep the TEXTJOIN and date fixes in a Report tab that points at it.
• Or open it in Excel from Jira. From search, the Apps menu can open the results in Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets. It's worth a look if you rerun the same report every week.

And if the button you keep wishing Jira had is one only you need, our guide to building your own extension for a button the site lacks shows how far that goes.

Tabless is a browser extension that builds what you ask for from the sites you allow; nothing is typed or submitted without your OK. It isn't open yet. An export like this one is the kind of job we're building it for: asking in plain words for "the open issues in this sprint, with assignee, status and the last comment", and getting it as a CSV or XLSX file with just those columns.

It's designed to read through the session your browser already has, so there are no API keys or passwords to hand over, and to ask before it reads each site. You sign in to Tabless with a Wix account.

The export is in search, and it holds the issues your search shows you, so try it first. If the Export option isn't in the More actions menu, ask your Jira admin.

With current fields, the file has only the columns your search shows, so add the missing field as a column and export again. With all fields, check whether the field is in use in that project, or ask your Jira admin.

Yes. Open the saved filter from Filters, then choose More actions › Export and a CSV, which Excel opens. From search, the Apps menu can also open the results in Microsoft Excel.

Not yet. Tabless isn't open, and exports like this one are among the jobs we're building it for. Join the waitlist, and we'll let you know when you can try Tabless.