Hitting ESC key in work item description field deletes unsaved changes with no chance to recover

[Kevin Meagher]

Hi, 

Hitting ESC seems to delete any unsaved changes in the Jira description field. I unfortunately habitually hit esc - probably VIM muscle memory. 

I don't mind it shifting focus, but I understood that changes were cache locally in browser or remotely until save or cancel was hit. Feels like a recent change, haven't had issues with this in the past. 

Uploaded a GIF of the issue below. Is this behaviour configurable? 

Thanks. 

[G subramanyam · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kevin Meagher welcome to Atlassian community.

I can understand your concern—VIM muscle memory is a hard habit to break!

To answer your question directly: No, this specific behavior (the Escape key discarding changes) is not currently a configurable setting within the Jira UI.

Jira uses an "inline editor" for descriptions and comments. In many web frameworks, hitting ESC is the standard command to "cancel" or "exit" an active inline edit mode. While Jira does have a Drafts feature that saves content locally, it is primarily designed to protect you from browser crashes or accidental refreshes, rather than an explicit "Cancel" command like hitting Escape.

Since you mentioned this feels like a recent change, I recommend keeping an eye on the similar requests on the Jira Cloud (JRACLOUD) project on the Atlassian Ecosystem Jira.

[Yohann BALAWENDER]

I hit a 👍 ; I'm almost sure this is a regression since I'm a serious escape-kicker and I've always succeeded to retrieve my previous unsaved work.

Now this week I've almost lose a hour of work because I keep dropping unintentionally my work.

[David Bruck]

Or better answer, TamperMonkey-style script that just binds the `esc` key to "do nothing":
```
document.addEventListener('keydown', (e) => {
  if (e.key !== 'Escape') return;
  const editor = document.getElementById('ak-editor-textarea');
  if (!editor || !editor.contains(e.target)) return;
  e.preventDefault();
  e.stopPropagation();
}, true);
```

[David Bruck]

I have been accidentally pressing Escape before, and only recently I have noticed it started deleting my unsaved changes. Before, it would let us go back into the unsaved changes and continue. This is a recent regression, so where can I reopen this bug?

[David Bruck]

I am unable to create a JRACLOUD bug, it's not in the available list to create. There are others like JRASERVER though. Is there a different bug portal?