Completed a Sprint it move all Done items to next Sprint

[Bravo IT]

I was facing similar issue with many user reported,  when I completed a Sprint it move all Done items to next Sprint. It was so confusing. 

And I was surprised that the original "Done" status is not recognized as "Completed", then it auto move to next sprint...  what's the problem of new update in Jira??


how can I exclude these items from current Sprint, or move it back to previous Sprint?

[Trudy P Claspill]

Hello @Bravo IT 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

When using a scrum board only the items in statuses in the column farthest to the right are considered "complete" at the end of the sprint. It doesn't matter what their status is, only that it is in the right-most column.

This also determines what will appear in the Backlog list in your Backlog screen.

Additionally if you have an issue that has subtasks that are in statuses not in the right most column, then the parent issue will be considered incomplete even if it is in the right most column.

When an incomplete issue is moved to the next sprint it retains its connection to the previous sprints that it was in. You don't need to "move it back" to the previous sprint. However, if you view the Sprint report for that sprint, you will see that the issues were considered incomplete.

If you remove the issues from the current sprint, and they are in statuses not mapped to the right-most column, then they will display in the Backlog list in your Backlog screen, because Jira will consider them incomplete.

So, the first question that needs to be answer is are the issues in statuses that are mapped to the right most column of your Scrum board? Can you share with us the board configuration screen that shows the mapping of statuses to columns for your board?

The second question is do you have more than one Scrum board with different mappings of statuses to columns that include these issues?

The third question is are these issues that have "incomplete" subtasks?

And the last question is what Type of project does this concern? Get project Type information from the View All Projects page under the Projects menu.

If what I have described does not match your situation (i.e. the issues actually are in the right most column), then you are experiencing a different problem and we need to ask different questions.

[Xenia Chilkowich]

This is ridiculous. I am having this issue as well. I am marking my items as deployed which is a status in the done column. Are you actually saying I still have to manually move these on the board to prevent this? that is outrageous. I just spent 30 minutes dealing with the aftermath of what I consider a bug not proper design. 

[Trudy P Claspill]

Hello @Xenia Chilkowich 

I'm not sure that we can respond to your post without more context, such as the questions I asked the original poster:

So, the first question that needs to be answer is are the issues in statuses that are mapped to the right most column of your Scrum board? Can you share with us the board configuration screen that shows the mapping of statuses to columns for your board?

The second question is do you have more than one Scrum board with different mappings of statuses to columns that include these issues?

The third question is are these issues that have "incomplete" subtasks?

And the last question is what Type of project does this concern? Get project Type information from the View All Projects page under the Projects menu.

Additionally the only people seeing your addition to this post that is over a year old are the original author, people Watching the post, and people who responded to it. I encourage you to start a new post by clicking the +Ask a question button at the top of the forum. Newer posts are more visible than older posts. And it would be helpful if you can provide the answers to the questions I asked above.

[pawarsachin84]

Hello @Bravo IT  ,

❗ Root Cause:

Jira only considers issues “completed” at Sprint completion if they are in the right-most column of the active board — not based on their status name or even their status category.

✅ Even if a status is named "Done" or is in the "Done" category (green), the issue will still be treated as incomplete if it is not placed in the right-most column of the board.

✅ How to Check & Fix

Step 1: Check Your Board Configuration

1. Go to your board → Click “Board settings” (Configure)

2. Open the “Columns” tab

3. Make sure all your final statuses (e.g., Done, Resolved, Closed) are in the right-most column

✅ Only issues in this column are treated as completed when you close a sprint.

🧠 Bonus: Check the Status Category (for clarity in filters/reporting)

While status category (green = Done) is useful for reports and filters, it does not control sprint completion behavior.

To check:

• Go to Project Settings → Workflows → Edit Workflow

• Hover over the “Done”-type statuses

• Green = Done category

• Blue = In Progress

• Grey = To Do

You can update this via:
Jira Settings → Issues → Statuses → Edit → Change Category

📦 How to Move Issues Back to a Previous Sprint

Jira does not allow moving issues to a completed Sprint via the UI, but here are workarounds:

🟢 Workaround: Create a Dummy “Recovery” Sprint

1. Create a new sprint (e.g., Recovery Sprint Q1)

2. Move the wrongly carried-over issues into it

3. Close that sprint — it will provide an accurate sprint closure record for those issues;

🧠 Pro Tip to Prevent This in Future

• Always verify that the “Done” statuses are in the last column before completing a sprint

• Use Automation to flag or notify when “Done” issues are not mapped correctly

• Encourage teams to review the Sprint Completion dialog for leftover issues

[Trudy P Claspill]

@pawarsachin84 

Your answer is incorrect.

At the completion of a sprint issues are considered incomplete if they are not in the right-most column of the board. It does not matter what the Status of the issue actually is nor if that status is in the "Done" Status Category.

This has been discussed in many posts within this community.

[pawarsachin84]

@Trudy P Claspill 

Thank you for the correction — you’re absolutely right.
After reviewing further, it’s clear that Jira determines sprint completion status based on the issue being in the right-most column on the board, not the status name or its category.
We appreciate the clarity and will ensure future responses reflect this more accurately!

[Xenia Chilkowich]

So I had a far right column for discontinued. This is frustrating. I don't understand why JIRA isn't smart enough to understand that anything in the Done column is done regardless of placement on the board.  Now I have to figure out some other way to isolate my discontinued tickets. 

[Trudy P Claspill]

Hello @Xenia Chilkowich 

One factor to consider is that the name of the column (Done) is just a label and that label can be changed. Some may choose to label the column "Completed" or "Fixed". So Jira can't evaluate "done-ness" based on the name of the column.

Jira is also highly configurable, allowing teams to decide that a status in the "In Progress" Status Category may be the end state of their scrum process. So Jira is not limited to considering only work in a status in the "Done" Status Category is the only work that can be considered complete in the sprint.

That leaves the option to rely on the right most column representing the work completed in the sprint.

You could have your "done" status and your "discontinued" status both mapped to the right-most column if you want both to represent work completed in the sprint. Some methods to distinguish those issue from each other is by showing the status as one of the fields on the card, or setting the card color based on the status.

[Xenia Chilkowich]

There should be an option to choose not to move items to the next sprint if you don't want to. I think this automation is chaotic.

[Trudy P Claspill]

@Xenia Chilkowich 

I encourage you to provide that feedback directly to Atlassian. Under the Help button in Jira you can find a Feedback option that provides a simple form you can fill out to submit that feedback.

[Xenia Chilkowich]

I will think about it. I"m a little weary of providing feedback for all the limitations of team managed projects and wondering if anyone is actually listening. Thank you so much