Can't open exported CSV in Microsoft Excel

Summary

Exported CSV file from JIRA with issues that contain multi-line description can't be properly imported into Microsoft Excel.
Only way to open CSV files with multi-lines in Microsoft Excel is to do so with "Open" option, which doesn't recognize UTF-8 encoding and can expect different separator than comma (,) depending on region set in operating system.

CSV export from JIRA currently can't be customized. It is always encoded in UTF-8 and has separators fixed to comma (,).

Environment

• Tested with Microsoft Excel 2016 for MacOS 10.11.1
• JIRA 7.3.0

Steps to reproduce

1. Create new issue that has:
   • Multi-line description
   • Some regional characters (e.g. žéíýšáčúřÚňěČąęćśźżłóń) in description or summary
2. From the issue navigator, export the issue to a CSV file (e.g. Export > CSV (All fields))
3. Case 1:
   • Open CSV in Microsoft Excel 2016.
4. Case 2:
   • Import CSV into Microsoft Excel 2016
     • Select delimited columns
     • Select UTF-8 as encoding
     • Select comma as delimiter

Expected result

In at least one case Excel should show data in proper cells while rendering correctly all of regional characters.

Actual result

Case 1: Data will go to proper cells if region in operating system is set to one that uses commas as delimiter in CSV. UTF-8 encoding is always not recognized.

Case 2: New lines in multi-lined text split rows making data go to improper cells

Workarounds

Workaround 1

Open CSV file in other spreadsheet software (e.g. LibreOffice or Google Spreadsheets) and export it to XLS or XLSX file

Workaround 2

1. At the beginning of the CSV file put

    sep=,

1. Use some external tool to change file's encoding to some that would be recognized by Excel
2. Open new file directly into Excel

Workaround 3

1. Open the CSV file with Notepad (default text editor in Windows)
2. Click File -> Save as -> Ensure Encoding is UTF-8 -> Save
3. Open the new file with Excel

Alternative solutions

Plug-in Better Excel Plugin provides native Excel export via XLSX files.

Reference

Exported CSV does not display properly in Excel that contains non-English characters