Removing items from the Service Desk Work Item View

[Neil Poska]

Somehow someone added a bunch of fields to our Service Desk work item view. Just dozens of work items that are meaningless in the request context but get added to every request. There are hundreds of custom fields associated with the screen scheme, but show up as 'hidden when empty' and I don't see how these are different.

We have probably 50 service desk request types, and I don't want to have to manually remove all of them from each request type.

Somehow they got added to all the requests at the same time, but I don't see anything in the documentation about removing them from all requests.

Also: How did these get added to the work item view, so I can try to prevent this in the future?

Possibly related solution: is it possible to get the request type to completely ignore the work item view?

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Neil,

That can happen a couple of ways, if you are creating Request Types using a template versus from scratch, Jira will add a bunch of those. I NEVER use a template. Or when people create custom fields, they might choose to add it to all screens. Either way, it's not good. 

Instead of altering the field/issue layout, you should go to the screen itself and remove the fields there. 

[Neil Poska]

If I don't remove them from some sort of Work Item View configuration, when I create a new Request Type, they will automatically be added and the first thing I will have to do is manually remove them from the new Request Type? Is that correct? Like basically every new Request Type that we create until the end of time will have these trash fields added and I will have to manually remove them?

[John Funk]

If you remove them from the screen, they will be removed from the Work Item View Configuration. 

When you create a new Request Type, if you don't do it from a template then all of those fields will not get added. Otherwise, yes, they will probably get added. 

[Neil Poska]

First of all, thanks for replying and slow-walking me through this.

I didn't make my question or reply clear enough, I think.

Each one of these weird fields is actually a valid field for ONE of the Request Types, so I can't remove them from the Screen or they won't be available the one place where they are actually needed. That's why I think it is important for me to understand how they got added to the Work Item View and how I can remove them from some sort of Work Item View configuration (not just the Work Item View tab for the request).

Does that make sense?

[John Funk]

In that case you should create a different screen and screen scheme for each issue type. Then you can remove the fields from the screens associated with the issue type associated with the Request Type. 

Or

You can update the Context for each of the Custom fields to be associated with an Issue Type. This will cause them to disappear from the screens for the other issue types. 

[Neil Poska]

Oh I bet this is the answer. Contexts.

It is still frustrating that these fields magically became part of Request Types that have been around for years, but hopefully this is the way out of it for now. 

Answer accepted. Thanks.

[John Funk]

Let us know if it still is a problem. 

[Neil Poska]

Actually, I tested adding a context to one of the problem fields, and it did not remove it from the forms for the other request types. Not sure how to proceed other than just manually removing them. Frustrating.

[John Funk]

Are there multiple Request Types using the same work type? If so, that is the problem. 

[Neil Poska]

Nope. Each Request Type has it's own unique Work Item Type.

[Jason U]

Hi Neil,

This usually happens when new custom fields are added to a shared screen scheme or request form configuration that’s used across multiple request types in your Service Project.

Here’s what’s likely happening:

• Those fields were added to the “Edit/View Issue” screen or the Agent Work Item View that’s shared among several request types.
• Because the screen is shared, all request types that use it automatically display those fields.

✅ To clean this up efficiently:

1. Go to Project settings → Request types.
2. Pick one of the request types that has those unwanted fields.
3. Click Edit fields (or “Request form” if you’re in the new experience).
4. You’ll see all fields that are currently on the form — remove the ones you don’t need.
   • The same configuration may be shared by others, so updating one can impact all that use the same screen/form.

If you want to avoid this issue in the future:

• Create separate screens or forms per request type (instead of using the default shared one).
• When creating new custom fields, don’t associate them automatically with all screen schemes.
  You can customize this during field creation under “Screens”.

Unfortunately, there’s currently no bulk removal option for fields from all request types at once — this has to be done per type or per screen association.

If you suspect it was added by a global screen update, you can also check under:
Jira settings → Issues → Screens → [Screen Scheme Name],
then remove the fields directly from the screen that’s shared by all Service Desk request types.


If you’d like to review the official documentation related to this topic:

👉 Manage screen schemes – Atlassian Support
— Guide on how to manage and configure screen schemes in Jira. (Atlassian Support)

👉 About the work item view in Jira Service Management – Atlassian Support
— Explanation of the agent “work item view” and its relation to request forms. (Atlassian Support)

Hope this clarifies things and helps you prevent it in the future.

[Neil Poska]

Yes, all of the request types share a screen and scheme. I will experiment with separate screens later this week after the current stuff gets cleaned up.

I tried your method to clean things up efficiently, but the items I want to remove are not on the Request Form tab, they are on the Work Item View tab. That's the problem. Removing a field from the Work Item View for a Request Type does not remove it from other Request Types.

Did I misunderstand what you are suggesting here?

Thanks for helping.