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Community resources
Top 7 Jira Admin Mistakes That Cause Jira Issues and How to Fix Them
Jira is one of those tools that can be anything you want it to be. That’s both its biggest strength and its biggest risk. When you’re an admin, the line between a well-tuned instance and a confusing mess is thinner than most people think.
Most admins eventually run into common Jira problems: slow Jira performance, confusing workflows, permission errors, or migration issues. These mistakes usually show up first as Jira issues that frustrate users, reduce adoption, and create unnecessary admin overhead.
The good news: almost every admin challenge that shows up in the Atlassian Community follows a familiar pattern. Here are the seven most common Jira admin mistakes, what they look like in real life, and how to fix them before they snowball.
1. Letting Configuration Bloat Take Over
The mistake:
Over the years, teams add hundreds of custom fields, screens, workflows, dashboards, and projects. Few of them get retired. The result is a Jira instance that feels heavy: pages take longer to load, users scroll through endless dropdowns, and admins struggle to find what’s still relevant.
How it affects:
- Slow Jira performance and reporting problems.
- Higher risk of errors in reporting (duplicate or unused fields skew filters).
- Confused users who stop trusting Jira.
Warning signs:
- Custom field count well over 500, many with similar names.
- Dashboards that haven’t been viewed in months.
- Projects created “just to test something” still active years later.
How to avoid it:
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Schedule quarterly audits of fields, screens, workflows, and dashboards.
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Archive inactive projects to reduce clutter. (*project archiving is available on Premium & Enterprise plans.)
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Add “(Retired)” to the names of unused configs before removing them.
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Use field contexts and admin insights to scope unused fields; supplement with Marketplace apps for “last used” data.
2. Designing Workflows That Try to Do Everything
The mistake:
One of the most common workflow problems in Jira is a workflow with 15 statuses that looks like a subway map. Every possible exception has its own step. Users end up clicking through statuses like “On Hold,” “Waiting for Review,” and “Paused” — all of which mean basically the same thing.
How it affects:
- More complexity = more admin overhead.
- Harder for users to know what to do next.
- Reporting is messy when statuses overlap.
Warning signs:
- Users skipping statuses just to move work forward.
- Managers asking, “What’s the difference between these two?”
- A workflow diagram that doesn’t fit on a single screen.
How to avoid it:
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Start by mapping the real business process, then ask which steps truly add value.
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Rule of thumb: If it doesn’t change someone’s action, it doesn’t deserve a status.
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Reuse simple workflow templates across projects.
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Pilot a simplified workflow in one project and measure adoption before scaling.
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Use Control Chart or Marketplace “time in status” apps to spot redundant statuses. JSM teams can lean on SLA metrics (e.g., Time to resolution).
For deeper workflow design practices, see Mastering Jira Workflows: Practical Tips
3. Permission Chaos
The mistake:
Everyone’s an admin. Permission schemes copied so many times that no one knows who has access to what. External users with more visibility than intended.
How it affects:
- Jira access errors and compliance risks.
- Users accidentally changing configurations.
- Inconsistent experience between projects.
Warning signs:
- More than a handful of site admins.
- Teams solving permission issues by “just making someone admin.”
- No documentation of who has what access.
How to avoid it:
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Apply the principle of least privilege: only give the minimum permissions needed.
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Audit Jira admins and project admins twice a year.
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Keep permission schemes consistent across projects.
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Use the Jira admin helper → Permissions helper to test why a user can or can’t do something before creating exceptions.
4. Poorly Managed Automation
The mistake:
Automations are powerful, but unmanaged they multiply. You end up with dozens of overlapping rules, nobody knows who owns them, and some quietly fail in the background.
How it affects:
- Conflicting rules can cause errors or endless loops.
- Wasted resources on duplicate automations.
- Business-critical automations can fail without anyone noticing.
Warning signs:
- Rules without clear names or owners.
- Frequent errors in the automation audit log.
- More than 50 active rules with no central registry.
How to avoid it:
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Maintain a registry of automation rules in Confluence, with owner and purpose.
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Use naming conventions like
Project – Trigger – Action. -
Test new rules in isolation.
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Review and prune automations quarterly.
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Monitor the automation audit log to catch silent failures early.
5. No Governance or Change Control
The mistake:
Admins make changes directly in production. No documentation of why a field was added or who requested it. Multiple admins step on each other’s toes, leaving Jira inconsistent.
How it affects:
- Increases risk of breaking something critical.
- Creates “tribal knowledge” instead of transparent governance.
- Harder to roll back mistakes.
Warning signs:
- No record of changes over time.
- Multiple versions of the same workflow across projects.
- Admins relying on memory for why something was added.
How to avoid it:
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Funnel all admin requests into a single Jira project or board.
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Use a sandbox or test environment whenever possible. (Cloud Sandboxes are available on Premium & Enterprise.)
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Keep a changelog of who made what change and why.
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Standardize: use shared workflows and screens instead of one-off copies.
6. Forgetting the User Experience
The mistake:
Request forms with 15 fields when users only care about three. Technical jargon on portals. Dashboards designed for admins but useless for end users.
How it affects:
- Low adoption: users avoid Jira because it feels too hard.
- Bad data quality: fields left blank or filled incorrectly.
- Frustration that spills over into wider perception of Jira.
Warning signs:
- Users sending work through email or chat instead of Jira.
- Complaints about “too many fields.”
- Dashboards nobody checks.
How to avoid it:
- Show only the fields users need — use conditional fields to keep forms short.
- Use plain language labels, not Jira jargon.
- Test new workflows and portals with a small user group.
- Announce changes in advance and provide short guides or training.
7. Carrying Bad Habits into the Cloud
The mistake:
During migration to Atlassian Cloud, teams often lift-and-shift everything — including unused projects, workflows, and apps. Or they assume Cloud has the same limits and features as Server/Data Center.
How it affects:
- Migration takes longer and costs more.
- You bring old problems into a new environment.
- Cloud limits (automation, API calls, storage) can block your setup.
Warning signs:
- Planning a migration without an app audit.
- Migrating workflows you know are unused “just in case.”
- Discovering features you relied on aren’t in Cloud.
How to avoid it:
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Run a cleanup before migration — archive unused projects, retire fields, remove old apps.
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Test in a Cloud Sandbox (Premium & Enterprise; multiple sandboxes per site are rolling out).
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Check automation usage & service limits and REST API rate limits early so rules/integrations don’t stall mid-rollout.
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Plan licensing, identity, and SSO via Atlassian Access as part of the project, not after.
Summary Table: Common Jira Admin Problems and Fixes
If you want a quick reference, here’s a summary of the seven mistakes, the warning signs, and how to fix them.
| Mistake | Warning signs | How to fix |
|---|---|---|
| Config bloat Too many fields/projects/workflows |
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| Over-engineered workflows Too many statuses & transitions |
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| Permission chaos Too many admins / inconsistent schemes |
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| Poorly managed automation Overlapping rules, no owners |
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| No governance Direct prod changes, no changelog |
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| UX neglect Too many fields; jargon; unused dashboards |
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| Lift-and-shift migration Bringing bad habits to Cloud |
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Wrapping It Up
Almost every Jira admin has stumbled into at least one of these mistakes. They’re not a sign of poor skills — they’re a by-product of working in a flexible, evolving platform under constant pressure.
The key is to treat Jira administration like any other product: maintain it, monitor it, and design with the end user in mind. Start small, by picking one of the seven mistakes, fix it this quarter, and build a habit of governance. Your users (and your future self) will thank you.
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