Epic was removed and now Admin can't access it either

[Michael Chen - Contractor]

All of the stories associated with this epic have been orphaned. The epic now shows "We can't show this project." The admin also sees the same message. 

Any ideas how this happened and how it can be fixed/restored? 

[Benjamin]

Hi @Michael Chen - Contractor 

The message doesn't seem to be related. It mentions can't see this project when you are accessing the Epic. 

Perhaps the Epic was archived or issue security level was applied to not allow specific users to see that Epic. If either isn't the case, then maybe the quickest route to get things going is follow @Varsha Joshi suggestion to recreated the Epic and link the stories. If it's Epic was actually purge, then there isn't much options. 

[John Funk]

Hi Michael - Was the Epic in the same project/space? Or a different one? And if a different one, can you see other work items on that project/space? 

[Grace Collins]

If the Epic was moved to a different project or if the 'Issue Security' settings were changed, even a site admin might lose direct visibility unless they are explicitly added to the security level. I’d recommend checking the 'Audit Log' to see exactly who moved it and where. Another possibility is that the issue was accidentally deleted, in which case you might need to check if there are any recent backups or use the 'Issue History' search to confirm the deletion.

[Michael Chen - Contractor]

I created a new epic and relinked all of the orphaned stories. I'm just trying to understand what happened and perhaps more importantly, why it happened so I can try to get ahead of it happening again.

Luckily it was a fairly small epic so it didn't take long to get it back to the way it needed to be... but I have other epics that are far more extensive and I don't want this to happen to those epics.

[Varsha Joshi]

Hi @Michael Chen - Contractor 

Do you know what stories/Jira items were linked to the Epic that was removed?

I would just add a new Epic and link them. I checked and noticed Audit log is also not much useful to provide which stories were linked.

Thanks

Varsha