CSV Bulk Update Existing

[Jacob Hanson]

Hello everyone, 

I have created some custom fields for my project. Those fields are new and do not have data populated. I want to add data into them using excel and then update the existing issues. 

What is the best practice to do this?

[Brant Schroeder]

@Jacob Hanson Yes, you can import updates via the External System Import in CSV format.

You will need to have the issue ID for each issue and then combine that with the data in excel.  Then save the excel file to CSV and do the import.  I would suggest doing one update at a time to ensure that you have everything setup correctly and then do the large import that updates all the issues.

Here is some helpful information about imports. https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/import-data-from-a-csv-file/ 

[Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira]

Hi @Jacob Hanson

just to add to Brant's great answer:

If you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, you may want to have a look at the app that my team and I are working on, JXL for Jira.

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline-editing, sorting, and filtering by all your issue fields, much like you’d do in e.g. Excel or Google Sheets. It also comes with a range of advanced features, including the ability to inline bulk-edit your issues via copy/paste. This works within JXL, but also between JXL and pretty much any other app, including e.g. Excel.

This is how this looks in action:

This is updating the due date, but it would work for any other (custom) field as well.

Depending on your exact use case, you could consider making your changes directly in JXL, or copying them over as shown above. You can update any number of issues in one go, so you should be done with your work in no time.

Any questions just let me know,

Best,

Hannes