How to edit issues in DONE/CLOSED status

[Jermaine Gates-Langdale]

I've previously been looking for a solution for this and see there is a recent article stating there is now a resolution. 

Article: https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/how-do-i-edit-closed-issues 

Firstly, the Property Key: [jira.issue.editable] does not appear when opening the properties menu on the 'Done' status within my project workflow. I'm only met with 'There are currently no defined properties'.

Looking at the use-case of the jira.issue.editable property, as described within this article: "To make an issue editable when it's on a particular status." - With that logic I even added that property key and set the value to 'true', still no luck in able to edit any issues marked 'Done' within my project, 

I have JIRA-admin permissions, so I don't think it's anything to do with permissions.

I also tried this with other projects and still not able to move 'done' issues back to an appropriate status. 

Is there something else I'm missing? 

Thanks! 

[Jermaine Gates-Langdale · Accepted solution]

[Chris Thomas]

It looks like the article you linked is for Jira Server/Datacenter, not cloud which is what your profile says you use.

First let me understand what exactly you need. You have a issue that is closed and you are not able to edit things like the summery/description?

• Anyone with the Edit Issue on my instance is able to do this. I am unaware of any security settings that would not allow someone to edit an open issue but not a closed issue. If this is the case hopefully someone else can help.

Or are you trying to reopen an issue and it's not showing as open?

• This is a bit easier. You will need to set a post function to clear the resolution field on the transition that moves the ticket to an open status.

[Jermaine Gates-Langdale]

Hi Chris - Great spot, we're using the cloud instance. 

What I'm trying to do is alter the status of any issues marked as 'done'. Sometimes an item will be unintentionally or mistakenly marked as 'done', with no way to move that item back into 'in-progress'. 

I've tried using a transition within the workflow settings, e.g: Closed > In-progress. Although met with "You cannot perform this operation on a draft workflow" (even though you can create transitions in that same window). 

As a workaround we just clone the items as to not lose the information and place it into the desired status. 

Thanks for the help! 

[Chris Thomas]

Alright, here is what you need to do.

First off the problem you are having is by design and while it may be annoying, it is a good thing. You have active tickets and messing with the workflow could corrupt them. That's why you can not do some things with an active workflow.

First off Copy the workflow you are using and rename it with something like "Updated" instead of "Copy of".

In the new workflow, create a "Reopened" step and make sure the transition clears the "Resolved" field.

From "Reopened" make sure you can go to where ever you want it to go.

The reason for a reopened step is you can actually make a report that shows all tickets that have ever been in that step. Might help later on.

After you are happy with the updated workflow, switch it in and all of the tickets will migrate. At this point I make a reminder to delete the old workflow in 2 weeks or so just in case I messed something up and need to move back in a hurry.

Let me know if you have any questions on this.

[Jermaine Gates-Langdale]

Thanks for this Chris! 

[christianne.carvalho]

Hi. I'm having a similar behavior (also using cloud) but in my case I really want to just edit an information (adjust the fixVersion). Anyway to do that without actually having to reopen the whole issue (even more because we need this with a bulk change for a whole set of issues)? And it's ok if the solution can only be done by an administrator to avoid everyone from changing closed issues by accident.