"The JIRA server was contacted but has returned an error response" when searching for issues and using any high-byte character in any text field
Platform Notice: Data Center - This article applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this knowledge base article was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center knowledge base articles for non-Data Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
The content on this page relates to platforms which are not supported for JIRA Applications. Consequently, Atlassian cannot guarantee providing any support for it. Please be aware that this material is provided for your information only and using it is done so at your own risk.
Symptoms
When searching for issues, if you enter any high-byte characters into a text field, the following error message shows up, similar to below:
Cause
This is caused by a Microsoft IIS reverse proxy with the ISA Server setting "Block high-bit characters" enabled.
Resolution
Follow the steps at the Microsoft KB here