Bug Report: Manual automation rule greyed out on Board when selecting issues via Ctrl+Click

[Tobias Gfall]

Hi community,
I would like to report the following suspected bug:

Product: Jira Cloud
Component: Automation / Board View

Summary

Manual automation rules are greyed out (disabled) when selecting one or more issues on a Jira Board via Ctrl+Click, even though the board toolbar explicitly instructs users to select issues this way to trigger automations. The same automation rules work correctly when triggered from within the issue detail view.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a simple manual automation rule (e.g., "Set due date to tomorrow") with no user inputs required.

2. Ensure the rule is scoped correctly — either to a single project or to multiple projects via "Multiple scopes" (all relevant projects added).

3. Navigate to a Board (Kanban).

4. Hold Ctrl and click on one issue to select it.

5. Open the Automation menu in the top toolbar.

6. Observe that the manual automation rule is greyed out / disabled.

Expected Behavior

The automation rule should be available and executable from the board toolbar after selecting an issue via Ctrl+Click — as the toolbar itself states:

"To automate one or more issues, select them by holding Ctrl and clicking."

Actual Behavior

The automation rule remains greyed out and cannot be triggered, despite:

• Only a single issue being selected

• The rule having no user input fields

• The rule being a simple action (set due date field)

• The rule being correctly scoped to the project(s) shown on the board

• The rule working perfectly when triggered from the issue detail view (⚡ Automations menu)

This behavior is consistent across:

• A multi-project board (rule scoped to all projects via "Multiple scopes")

• A single-project board

Additional Context

• The board toolbar message explicitly encourages Ctrl+Click selection for automations, which makes this behavior feel like a bug rather than a missing feature.

• The automation rule has no conditions, no user inputs — it is as simple as possible (trigger: manual → action: set due date to tomorrow).

Expected Resolution

Manual automation rules without user inputs should be executable from the board toolbar when issues are selected via Ctrl+Click, consistent with the UI guidance displayed in the toolbar.

Thank you in advance for reviewing this.

[Germán Morales]

Tobi's link to AUTO-1999 is the right place to track this. Worth upvoting there if you haven't already — it's a confirmed bug affecting Company Managed projects.

In the meantime, the most reliable workaround is to trigger the rule from inside the issue view rather than from the board. Not ideal if you need to act on multiple issues at once, but it works consistently.

If your use case allows it, another option is to change the trigger from "Manually triggered" to a scheduled or field-change trigger — that bypasses the board UI entirely.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Tobias Gfall 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

This is a user community. It is not the best method to ensure your concern reaches Atlassian.

If you are the administrator of a paid subscription you can contact Atlassian directly.

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

Otherwise you can notify your admins and they can contact technical support.

You may also want to review the answers on this earlier post in the same topic.

https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Automation-questions/Why-automation-rules-are-not-availabe-from-project-board/qaq-p/3232451

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Hah, interesting @Tobias Gfall 🤔

I never run automation rules like this, but I can confirm the behavior.

Note that there's an open bug related to this behavior: AUTO-1999: Unable to execute manual automation rule from board for company managed projects 
I'd recommend leaving a vote and/or a comment, but it's definitely a UI-related issue.

Cheers,
Tobi