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Can’t reuse deleted project key AD on Jira Cloud free site

Michel
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I'm New Here
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April 21, 2026

Hi all,

I’m site admin on a Jira Cloud Free site:

  • Site: michelanalytics.atlassian.net

  • Old project key: AD

I previously had a project (Space) with key AD. I deleted it and also removed it from the Trash.

Now I cannot create a new project with the same key AD – Jira says the key is not available / already in use.

Current behavior:

  • JQL

    project = AD

    returns:

    The value 'AD' does not exist for the field 'project'.

  • Opening https://michelanalytics.atlassian.net/browse/AD-1 shows:

    “We can't show this project”.

  • In Projects, Trash, and any archived projects, there is no project with key AD.

  • I am site admin, so I should see everything.

It looks like the original project is gone from the UI, but the key AD is still reserved internally, so I can’t reuse it.

Because this is a Free plan, I can’t open an official Atlassian support ticket and get redirected to the Community.

Questions:

  • Has anyone seen this before (deleted + removed from Trash, but key still blocked)?

  • Is there any way on a Free plan to free the key AD, or do I have to:

    • use a different key (e.g. AD2), or

    • temporarily upgrade to Standard to ask Atlassian to free AD?

Thanks!

1 answer

1 accepted

4 votes
Answer accepted
Trudy Claspill
Community Champion
April 21, 2026

Hello @Michel 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

How long after removing the project from the trash did you try to reuse the key?

If it was a short period of time you may want to wait and retry an hour or two later, giving time for reindexing to complete.

Michel
I'm New Here
I'm New Here
Those new to the Atlassian Community have posted less than three times. Give them a warm welcome!
April 21, 2026

Hi @Trudy Claspill I fews minutes. Thanks a lot for fastersponse and for your suggestion !

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DEPLOYMENT TYPE
CLOUD
PRODUCT PLAN
FREE
PERMISSIONS LEVEL
Product Admin
TAGS
AUG Leaders

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