Disable changing straight quotes to apostrophes in contraction words.

[Seonaid Welch]

Jira and Confluence automatically changes my single quotes to smart/curly ones if it detects a known contraction word and therefore infers that I want an apostrophe. So it changes "don't" to "don’t", but it does not change "do'nt" to "do’nt".

We can't be expected to press ctrl-z every time we type a contraction. I want what I typed to stay the way I typed it.

This is not a browser setting. It doesn't happen in a Google search input field, or in this input field I'm currently typing in to ask this question in the forum.

This is a dealbreaker for search. Especially since Jira's work item search DOESN'T replace straight quotes in the input field, but then treats straight and curly quotes as different characters. So if I'm searching for `comment ~ "can't reply"`, the results do not include work items where "can’t reply" appears in the comments.

This is not an implementation that my support agents could ever be expected to trust. How do I make it stop?

[Mona Singh]

Hi Seonaid,

This is Mona here, happy to help!

I completely understand where you’re coming from. This is a common challenge, especially when accurate search results and data consistency are important. The good news is that you’re not alone in noticing this, and the community is actively discussing it!

To better assist you, could you please share more details or screenshot about where you’re encountering this issue with straight quotes? For example, are you seeing it:

1. In JQL filtering

2. In the quick search bar

3. In the comment editor
   Knowing the specific context will help us understand the behavior more clearly and provide the most effective guidance.

For some background:
Jira and Confluence Cloud use Atlassian’s Fabric editor, which automatically converts straight single quotes (') to smart/curly quotes (’) in certain contexts, such as contractions (“don’t”, “can’t”, etc.). This behavior isn’t controlled by your browser or operating system, and currently, there’s no user or admin setting to disable it.

As you’ve noticed, Jira’s search engine treats straight and curly quotes as different characters. This means searching for "can't reply" (with a straight quote) won’t match "can’t reply" (with a curly quote), which can impact search reliability and user trust.

Is there a fix or workaround?

• No official setting: At this time, there’s no built-in way to turn off smart quotes in Jira or Confluence Cloud.

• Workarounds:

  • Pressing Ctrl+Z immediately after the auto-conversion will revert the smart quote, but this isn’t practical for every contraction.

  • Using code or preformatted blocks preserves straight quotes, but this isn’t ideal for regular text.

What’s Atlassian’s stance?
This issue is tracked here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-71736. Atlassian is aware of the problem, but as of now, there’s no ETA for a fix or a setting to disable smart quotes.

What can you do?

• Vote and comment on https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-71736: The more feedback Atlassian receives, the more likely they are to prioritize a solution.

• Contact Atlassian Support: If this is a blocker for your team, consider opening a support ticket and describing the impact on your workflows here.

Please let me know which area you’re seeing this in, and I’ll do my best to help you find the most effective workaround for your use case!

Thanks,
Mona

[marc -Collabello--Phase Locked-]

Probably you need to contact Atlassian support directly and ask them to open an issue for this.