How do I reliably use checkboxes in a Jira issue description?

[Carlin Scott]

I've found that if I check or uncheck a checkbox in an issue description, that it will delete the whole description if my view of the issue was out of sync. This is irreversible once it happens. And it makes the feature somewhat unusable.

No, I cannot use the issue history to restore the description because it lacks formatting characters. It's just one giant block of text.

Should I just not use checkboxes in an issue description? Or do I need to always refresh the page before I click a checkbox? I'm not sure if that will even work, because a couple times I had just cloned the issue and clicked a checkbox. And it deleted the description. No one else was editing it, except maybe Jira itself.

[Carlin Scott · Accepted solution]

I can manage the checklist in Confluence where the feature is more reliable and then embed it into the Jira issue description:

1. Create confluence page
2. Add checklist
3. Publish
4. Click "copy link" button.
5. Paste into the issue description
6. Click the generated card
7. Select "embed"

I can still check boxes in the embedded checklist and see it update in Confluence. There is a longer delay of about 10 seconds though.

[Matteo Vecchiato]

Hi @Carlin Scott ,

Thank you for your post.

In my opinion, it is better to use the dedicated checkbox custom field for this kind of use.

Kind regards 

[Carlin Scott]

I would use that if my use-case wasn't a release deployment checklist that changes with each release. The checkbox field is only useful for static checklists.

[Olga Cheban _TitanApps_]

hi @Carlin Scott ! I see you've already found an elegant workaround for this issue, but I still wanted to add a couple of things. 

Native checkboxes work well when you are taking notes during the meeting, but they are not very helpful for organizing processes step-by-step. They have many limitations. To name just a few - they can't be used with automation, and they don't show statuses for individual steps on the list.

As an alternative, I would recommend trying out a dedicated tool from the Atlassian Marketplace. You can easily manage checklists with our solution, Smart Checklist for Jira. It adds your checklist in a separate section directly below the work item description section. 

Here's what it looks like:



Smart Checklist allows you to set custom statuses for each step, mark crucial steps as mandatory, add details for each step in a dedicated collapsible section, and much more.

It also has a useful feature for checklist templates. You can save any checklist as a template and reuse it for repetitive tasks and processes. In your case, this could be a standard deployment checklist that you customise for each release, adding/removing steps.

Many teams use this feature to create the Definition of Done checklist template, Test Review template, and so on.  Smart Checklist has its own automation features, plus it can be used with native Automation for Jira. This means checklists saved as templates can be added to Jira issues automatically, which saves a lot of time and effort.

I hope this helps!
Let me know if you have any questions