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Getting a JQL error when searching for an existing project.

Rehnuma Noor
Contributor
February 5, 2026

Hello,

I'm doing some housekeeping in Jira by deleting junk projects. There is one that I'm having issues with. It's a team-managed project and the person who created it is no longer with my organization so I can't reach out to confirm if they still need it or if there are any existing issues.

The issue is when I try to search for this project using JQL I receive this error: "The value 'DT' does not exist for the field 'project'." It's odd because I'm able to access the project (I'm an Org. Admin) but some aspects of it like Reports aren't accessible. Screenshot provided below (concealed the first part of the project name for privacy reasons).

project issue.png

How can I be 100% sure there are no work items in it so I can delete it?

regards,

Rehnuma

3 answers

1 vote
Karan Sachdev
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
February 5, 2026

Hey @Rehnuma Noor

Good day!

This JQL error is usually seen when you don't have permission to view the work items of a project.

Can you please go to Project Settings > Access and see if it's a Private project? If so, try adding yourself as an administrator and see if any work items are visible.

Also, since you're on a premium plan, you may archive the project instead of deleting it.

Thanks!

0 votes
Jack Brickey
Community Champion
February 5, 2026

Hi @Rehnuma Noor , if you go to Manage Spaces (projects) does the project show in the list? If so, then navigate to the space and select List view. If no issues appear then I would Archive (not delete...I never delete) the project.

0 votes
Florian Bonniec
Community Champion
February 5, 2026

Hi @Rehnuma Noor 

 

In the project settings then Access make sure that you are listed as admin or user of the project if the project is Private.

Regards

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