How do I import links to an external Jira issue via CSV?

[Vera]

I am attempting to import links with the "external system importer" for issues that exist on two separate Jira systems. The two Jira systems have an application link set up and I am authenticated on both sides. Creating the links manually works however there are a lot of items that need to be linked across the two systems.

This is the sample CSV.

IssueKey	Link "relates to"	Summary
JIR-101	PRO-125

This results in the following error.

• Unable to link issue from autoid--8243463780417917975 to PRO-125 with link named 'relates': Cannot find imported issue key for external id 'autoid--8243463780417917975'
• Source issue not found

Is there a way to import external issues for linking via the external system importer?

I am unable to find documentation on this. 

[Ivan Lima · Accepted solution]

Hi @Vera. Welcome to the Atlassian Community.

You need to use APIs in this case. The CSV export/import doesn't handle remote links. I found the following feature request at the Atlassian public issue tracker:

• Remote and web links are not handled in JIM

For reference:

• respect remote issue links during CSV import
• Remote/Web Links won't copy over during project import or CSV import Jira server to Jira server

[Vera]

Thank you!