How to ensure all data in tickets remain intact after we modify the project fields.

[Steve Caprio]

For a maintenance project tracker we use Jira for, many dropdown fields we created have gained too many options to select. We are planning to overhaul the project removing many redundant or outdated things.  When we remove some of the options, what will happen to all of the tickets we already processed? We're afraid that all the processed tickets will be fubarred. Is there a way around this?  We were thinking of creating a whole new project but we'd still need to merge the legacy project data.. Help!

Thanks

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello  @Steve Caprio 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Does this concern a Company-managed project or a Team-managed project?

In a Team Managed project when you remove options in a Dropdown field configuration where that value has been used in issues the data will remain. However if you edit those fields you will no longer see the value as a selectable option. The option is disabled for future selection but not removed where it has already been used.

For Company Managed projects in the field configuration for select lists you would use the Disable option to the same effect. For these fields if you choose the Delete option then you will be prompted to select a different value for the affected issues before the value can be removed from the field configuration.

[Steve Caprio]

Hey Trudy

This is a team managed project. 

Thank you. We'll try some tests first. 

-S

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @Steve Caprio 

I wouldn't add nothing to @Trudy Claspill answer. 

What I would do before touching anything is export the affected issues to CSV and test the change on a few sample tickets first. That gives you a safety net and lets you confirm exactly how the old values look afterward in your own project.

[Steve Caprio]

Thank you! 

Testing before implementing is key.

-S