Plans, not all children are showing

[Tess Doris]

Hello all, I have a Jira Epic with 105 stories. When I bring the epic into plans, it is only showing 10 of these. 

Very basic filter - see screenshot.  Anyone know why it won't bring in all the children? 

[Jamie Zeidler]

Step 1. Check your source to ensure it returns the work items you expect
- If using a filter, go and check that it returns the results you want. If not, you may have to adjust your filter.
- If using a project, are the children of your Epic within the same project? If not, are they included in your filter (if using one) and/or you may need to include the project in your sources.

Step 2. Check the "work in your plan" under your Plan > Plan Settings
- The new setup for this is pretty good and gives a better overview of your sources than it did previously. Use the search and add one of the child work item keys. It will let you know if it's in your plan or not, so it should give you a good indication of what has happened.

[Jason U]

Hi Tess,

That behavior actually makes sense — your Plan is likely only bringing in the Epic itself because the JQL or issue source doesn’t explicitly include its child relationships (stories and subtasks).

When you add an Epic directly into a Plan using a JQL like issuekey = DU-4136,
Advanced Roadmaps doesn’t automatically expand its hierarchy — it only includes what your query returns.
In other words, if your JQL doesn’t describe the full chain (Epic → Stories → Sub-tasks), Plans has nothing else to show.

✅ Here’s a working JQL structure you can use

This explicitly tells Jira:

• which project(s) to include,
• which Epic(s) to show,
• which stories belong to those Epics, and
• which sub-tasks belong to those stories.

If you build your Plan filter this way, you’ll see the entire hierarchy — Epic → Story → Sub-task — exactly as expected.

💡 Why this happens

Plans doesn’t “assume” child issues exist unless they are present in your issue source or JQL result.
So adding only the Epic (issuekey = DU-4136) is considered an incomplete configuration, not a bug.
You can think of it as: Plans shows what you give it — not what it guesses you meant to include.

📘 You can check the official Atlassian documentation for this topic below:

👉 Configure custom hierarchy levels in your plan – Atlassian Support
👉 Link work item to a parent in your plan – Atlassian Support
👉 Configure the issue-type hierarchy – Atlassian Support

 
Hope this helps!

[Dave Liao]

Hi @Tess Doris ! 👋 

Can you share what source/s are part of your Plan?

• Is it a single project, board, saved filter, or something else?
• If a filter, can you share the JQL of that filter?

Appreciate any insight!

[Tess Doris]

Actually, right now I have the board connected.