Backlog shows only some Tasks (e.g. 7 of 16) – how to display all Tasks in Jira Cloud?

[Ran Pelta]

Hi,

I’m using Jira Cloud, and I’m seeing unexpected behavior in the Backlog view.

In the Backlog of the backlog section, Jira only shows part of my Tasks.
For example, it says like “(7 out of 16 work items visible)”, but I have no way to expand or display the remaining Tasks.

Important details:

• I only use “Tasks” as work items (no Issues, Stories, etc.)

• There are no filters applied

• In the List tab, I can see all Tasks correctly

• In the Backlog view:

  • I cannot see all Tasks

  • Clicking the three-dot menu (⋯) in the top-right does not show any relevant settings or configuration options

What I’m trying to achieve:
I want to see all Tasks directly in the Backlog view, not only in the List view.

Thank you

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Hey @Ran Pelta ,

Which space type are you using? Company-managed or team-managed?
Also, are you using a scrum or kanban board?

Also, have you checked if any of the filters are enabled? For example, assignee, type or something else? From my experience, it's usually the case that the user selected a specific assignee, or they entered text in the search box, and that's why it's displaying only a specific subset of items instead all of them.

If you're in a company-managed space, have you checked the board settings and board filter? This might not be relevant at this point, but it's worth checking.

ℹ️ List view always displays all items from the space, while some other tabs are connected to the board and board filter (such as Backlog and Timeline).

Cheers,
Tobi

[Ran Pelta]

Hi @Tomislav Tobijas  - thank you for the answer.

The issue is not that tasks are completely missing due to filters. I do filter by my name, and as you can see in the screenshot, Jira correctly finds 16 tasks. However, it only displays 7 of them.

What is confusing is that if I delete one of the 7 visible tasks, another task from the original 16 appears, and the message then changes to something like:
"7 out of 15 work items visible".

My question is: why are not all 15 tasks visible?
I cannot find any way to expand the view or display all items.

This makes me think there may be a setting somewhere that limits the backlog view to show only the first 7 items, but I cannot find such a setting.

Also important: there is no difference between the tasks in terms of Epic, time estimation, status, or any other field.

[Tomislav Tobijas]

7 out of 16 work items visible...

This would mean that there are 16 items total in the backlog, and only 7 are matching your filter criteria. There are no such configuration to adjust or limit this number (as far as I know), unless they are having some new experiment related to this 👀 

If you've deleted the one and it still showed "7 out of 15," it would probably mean you deleted the one that didn't match the initial criteria.

You said you're filtering out by 'your name' - does it mean you're using Assignee filter (marked on the screenshot below) or are you searching the summaries of work items?

If so, can you maybe try to check those items that are filtered out and see what value is set on them?

Again, it's a bit hard to troubleshoot this without actually seeing the items, filters, etc. (but note that this is a public forum, so keep that in mind before sharing any confidential information)

[Ran Pelta]

Hi, I’m aware that this is a public forum, so I have not included the names of colleges or tasks.

You wrote: "You said you're filtering out by 'your name' does it mean you're using the Assignee filter (marked on the screenshot below) or are you searching the summaries of work items?"

I am filtering by my name, where I am the Assignee.

The attached screenshot is from the List tab. I filter by Assignee = me and by the word unittest. I have two tasks called "unittest" under different Epics:

One appears in the backlog under the relevant sprint.

The other, which should appear in the backlog of the backlog (it was there about a month ago), is not shown.

I tried a workaround: I added the missing "unittest" task to the current sprint via the List tab. Then I went to the Backlog tab, saw it in the sprint, and dragged it to the backlog (still in the Backlog tab). It appeared there as expected, but after refreshing the browser or logging out and back in, it disappears again from the backlog of the backlog.

[Tomislav Tobijas]

...It appeared there as expected, but after refreshing the browser or logging out and back in, it disappears again from the backlog of the backlog.

This is actually quite interesting. Potentially... it could be a caching issue as it appears and then disappears. Have you tried using different browsers (or incognito mode) to check how it behaves?
Also, are other users experiencing the same thing as well?

Btw, are you app (Jira) admin? If yes, you could create a new support ticket for their team to take a look, if you grant them data access. If not, have you tried checking with org Jira admins to see what they say? 👀