How to Sync Jira Projects to a Notion Database (2 Methods)
It’s a tale as old as time. Your software development teams and product managers love Jira…and no one else does. Anyone collaborating with your developers has to face the tough choice of learning to use Jira or constantly copying and pasting data to their own tool — like Notion. But who has the time for that? Not you. Thankfully, there’s more than one way to automatically sync data from Jira into Notion.
One method is one Notion’s newest features, while the other depends on a little help from Unito. Here’s a guide to both.
First method: sync Jira with Notion using synced databases
With Notion’s connections, you can pair tools with your Notion pages to streamline work across teams. At their most basic, these connections can create individual, read-only replicas of work items from other tools, allowing you to keep an eye on their progress without leaving Notion. But synced databases — currently available for GitHub and Jira — take this to a whole other level.
Synced databases bring an entire Jira project into Notion in just a few clicks, meaning you can keep track of dozens of issues without any extra manual work. Here’s how it’s done.
Start by creating a blank Notion page that’ll hold your synced database.
Next, you’ll need to authorize Jira in Notion. Go to the sidebar and click Settings & members.
From there, go to My connections.
Find Jira and click Connect.
You’ll get this screen from Atlassian. Log in and authorize Jira.
Now the magic’s about to happen. Go to your Jira project and copy its URL.
And paste it into your Notion page. You’ll get a pop-up menu here; make sure to click Paste as database.
Just like that, you’ve created a synced database! Your Jira issues will automatically sync into Notion, and you can open up any of them just like on any other Notion page.
Limitations of this method
It’s pretty hard to beat “copy and paste a link” for ease-of-use and simplicity. If you’ve always wanted to see what was happening in a specific Jira project without actually opening it, Notion’s synced databases are just what you’ve been waiting for. That said, synced databases have a few limitations you should consider:
- They’re read-only: If you thought you’d be able to make changes to your Jira issues from Notion, think again. Treat your synced database as a window into your Jira projects, nothing more.
- They need a bit of cleanup: Since creating a synced database is done through essentially a single step — pasting a link — you might find yourself with some cleanup to do in Notion. For example, importing a Jira project for this blog post resulted in columns that were out of order and a ton of accidentally duplicated fields.
- They only work for a few tools: Synced databases are currently only available for Jira, GitHub, and Asana. That’s great if you’re collaborating with people in those tools, but otherwise you’re pretty limited.
So while creating a synced database only takes a few clicks, it’s not always the best solution. That’s fine if you just want a window into a Jira project — and can put up with a bit of manual cleanup — but that won’t work for everyone.
Luckily, there’s another way.
Second method: sync Jira and Notion with Unito
Unito is a no-code workflow management solution with the deepest two-way integrations for some of the most popular tools on the market, including tools like Notion, Jira, Trello, Google Sheets, and more. With a Unito flow, you can automatically sync Jira issues to a Notion database and edit data in both tools.
Here are a few reasons why Unito is the best way to sync Jira and Notion:
- It’s a true two-way sync: Want to make changes to a Jira issue from Notion? With a Unito flow, you can. Or you can make a read-only view. It’s up to you.
- There’s no cleanup required: When you build a Unito flow, you choose how to map fields, how many issues you want synced over, and what that’ll look like in Notion before everything gets synced over.
- It works with all your tools: Want to sync Jira issues with Asana tasks? Export Airtable bases to Notion (or vice-versa)? Send HubSpot tickets to Jira? With Unito’s full range of integrations, the sky’s the limit.
Why does this work? When you connect Jira projects and Notion databases with a Unito flow, your Jira issues will become pages in Notion, keeping everything in sync. And because this works in both directions, you don’t have to worry about either tool becoming outdated, and you can make changes on either end.
Here’s how easy it is to sync Jira projects with Notion.
Connect your Jira and Notion accounts to Unito. Pick the Jira project and Notion database you need to sync.
Want to sync everything or just a few work items? Use rules to filter out the Jira issues you don’t want synced.
Next, map your fields together so all your data goes to the right place. Unito can usually map most of these automatically, but it’s a good idea to review them.
And that’s it! Now just launch your flow and watch as Jira issues are automatically synced to your Notion database.