Adding yourself as a watcher now causes a ticket to register as "Updated", is this intentional?

[Will Littler]

We use Jira Cloud - within the past week or so, I've noticed that when I add myself as a watcher to a ticket my team is working on, the "Updated" log at the bottom of the ticket registers the time I added myself as a Watcher as the most recent time the ticket was updated. 

This did not used to be the case, as I monitor "aging" tickets my team is handling and need a way to be pinged when the ticket is actually updated. This change breaks my flow entirely as now the act of becoming a watcher triggers an update and removes the ticket from my board, resetting the "aging" clock. 

Anyone else seeing this? 

I tried to use the Atlassian support portal to submit a bug report or feature request, as directed by Atlassian's own AI agent - there is no option for me to submit a ticket to the "JRACLOUD" project even though I can see many tickets within it. 

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Will Littler -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

As adding a user as a Watcher modifies the work item, I am fairly confident this type of change always raised the issue-updated event and so was logged in the history.

When you note it "triggers an update and removes the ticket from my board", what do you mean?  For example, do you have a filter checking the updated field?

Kind regards,
Bill

[Bill Sheboy]

UPDATE: my mistake, as changing the watcher may not be updating the history after all...

According to several open suggestions, adding / removing a Watcher is not in the history.  Here are suggestions if you want to review or vote for them:

• OPEN (for 20+ years) -- https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-5494
• CLOSED (won't do) -- https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-13760
• CLOSED (duplicate) -- https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-61600
• OPEN (for 12+ years) -- https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-32125

If you are now seeing the updates in the history, perhaps Atlassian is experimenting with this change.  You may confirm that by asking your Jira Product Admin to contact Atlassian Support, as you must be at least a Product Admin to submit a ticket to them:

https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

When you hear back from them, please post what you learn to benefit the community.  Thanks!

[Will Littler]

Hi Bill, thanks for your reply.

I've found that the history of the ticket in fact does not reflect any changes if the "Watchers" field is adjusted. That was indeed the first place I looked when I was uncertain as to why the ticket fell off my dashboard.

What I meant by my comment was that the dashboard I use (based on a filter) to monitor what I consider "aged" tickets handled by my team would have the ticket drop off if I add myself as a watcher.

I noticed this immediately as I have been following the practice for several years now of adding myself as a Watcher in these scenarios, waiting for my team to change a data field such as Status or add a comment, which would then trigger the "Updated" field to record a new timestamp.    

Perhaps I interact with Jira Cloud in an uncommon way? Is it not common for people to utilize the "Updated" field to monitor for work that is "aging" if mechanisms such as "Due Date" are not being utilized by the team? 

Thanks again! 

Will

[Will Littler]

Ah great, thanks for digging those up Bill!