You’re hard at work, trying to help users through your Jira Service Management portal. Suddenly—bam! Timeouts. Your beautiful support flow grinds to a halt. You shake your fist at the heavens, and scream, “Why, Jira, why?” Okay, maybe it’s not that dramatic, but timeout errors are frustrating! Don’t worry, we’ll walk you through what they are, why they happen, and most importantly—how to fix them.
Table of Contents
TL;DR
If your Jira Service Management (JSM) is timing out, it’s usually due to long-running requests, large database searches, or poorly performing custom fields. Often, increasing timeout settings and optimizing performance can help. Advanced users might need to look at reverse proxies and JVM settings. Not as scary as it sounds, promise!
What Even Is a Timeout?
A timeout happens when Jira takes too long to respond. The web server (or browser) says, “Nope, this took too long—I’m out!
This can happen for:
- Slow server response
- Heavy database searches
- Chunky custom fields or filters
- Reverse proxy misconfigurations
Now that you know what a timeout is, let’s roll up our sleeves and dive into fixing it.
Step 1: Increase Timeout Settings (The Quick Win)
Your server might just need a little more patience. You can usually fix basic timeouts by increasing limits in your configuration files.
For NGINX
Edit your NGINX config file (often at /etc/nginx/nginx.conf):
proxy_read_timeout 300; proxy_connect_timeout 300; proxy_send_timeout 300;
This gives Jira up to 5 minutes to respond before NGINX gives up. Save, restart NGINX, and test.
For Apache
If using Apache with mod_proxy, look for these params:
ProxyTimeout 300
Restart Apache afterward. Boom! That might just solve it.
Step 2: Tinker with Tomcat (Jira’s Engine Room)
Jira runs on Tomcat. If it’s not happy, nobody’s happy. Open up server.xml (normally under $JIRA_HOME/conf/).
Find the <Connector> element and check these:
connectionTimeout="300000"
That sets the max wait time to 5 minutes. Make sure it’s high enough for big requests (but don’t go overboard).
Step 3: Check the Logs (The Detective Work)
Want to know what really happened? Look at the logs.
- atlassian-jira.log → core Jira activities
- catalina.out → errors from Tomcat
- access_log from NGINX or Apache
Look for stack traces or delays, especially around the time of the timeout. If you see something like: “java.lang.OutOfMemoryError”… well, that’s pretty self-explanatory. Time to give Jira a memory boost!
Step 4: Give Jira More RAM (It Likes Snacks)
Jira can get hungry, especially on big sites with lots of custom fields and data. If you’re running a JIRA instance with under 2GB of allocated RAM—you’re basically trying to run a marathon in flip-flops.
Edit your setenv.sh (Linux/macOS) or setenv.bat (Windows). Adjust these lines:
CATALINA_OPTS="-Xms2g -Xmx4g"
-Xms is the starting memory. -Xmx is the max. Don’t go higher than 75% of total system RAM, or you’ll make things worse. Give it juice, save, restart Jira.
Step 5: Optimize Your JQL Filters
Got custom dashboards? SLA filters? Hundreds of agents poking around? If your filters are too heavy, Jira may start to panic. Bad JQL (Jira Query Language) is like making Jira read “War and Peace” just to find one sentence.
Checklist:
- Avoid “ORDER BY created DESC” on massive issues sets
- Don’t use wildcards like “text ~ ‘serv*'”
- Archive old projects you no longer use
- Monitor filters with long processing times
If you’re not sure where the issue lies, try turning off one gadget or filter at a time to pinpoint the culprit.
Step 6: Evaluate Third-Party Apps
Marketplace add-ons are awesome… until they’re not. Some can bog down performance by clashing with core Jira scripts or doing mega-heavy tasks in the background.
Go to Manage Apps in Jira and disable them one at a time. Pay attention to performance after disabling each one. If one of them was the cause, don’t fret—you can reach out to the vendor or find an alternative.
Step 7: Consider Jira Data Center (For Big Teams)
If you’ve got hundreds of agents and thousands of tickets, you may be stretching Jira’s solo-instance limits. In that case, it might be time for Jira Data Center—the version of Jira that’s built for scale with load balancing and clustering.
It’s an investment, but the performance gain is real. Say goodbye to timeouts forever (well, maybe not forever, but mostly!).
Step 8: Call in Atlassian Support
Still stuck? Atlassian support is pretty awesome, especially if you’re a paying customer. Prepare the following before reaching out:
- Support zip (via Jira’s admin interface)
- Details of the page or feature causing timeout
- Screenshots or logs if possible
They’ll dig into the diagnostics and figure out what’s choking your instance.
Pro Tip: Use Application Monitoring
Tools like New Relic, Datadog, or AppDynamics can pinpoint which parts of Jira are slow—and why.
These tools can show you:
- Slow database queries
- Memory usage over time
- Which plugins are running long transactions
If you’re running a mission-critical service desk, using one of these tools is practically essential.
Let’s Wrap It Up
Timeout errors in Jira Service Management are annoying, yes—but they’re definitely fixable. Whether it’s a simple config tweak or a deep-dive into queries and memory, each step brings you closer to a silky-smooth experience for your agents and customers.
Here’s a final recap:
- Increase all relevant timeouts in NGINX, Apache, and Tomcat
- Boost memory and check your JVM settings
- Fix slow filters and simplify dashboards
- Audit third-party apps
- Scale up to Data Center if needed
Keep calm, optimize on, and may your Jira never timeout again!
