How to remove roles that are confirmed to be unused in Jira Cloud?

[Devarajan Mani]

Post Migration from Server to cloud we need to clear the unused roles in Cloud. Is there a way to do so in an optimized way?

[Karan Sachdev]

Hey @Devarajan Mani

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

You may utilise the Site Optimiser to view/optimise the space roles usage. There's a separate report for space role usage, where you can get project wise recommendations to clean up the space role permissions: https://<site-name>.atlassian.net/jira/settings/system/performance/metrics/projectroleactor

If you already have the list of space roles you can safely remove, you may delete them under Settings > System > Space Roles (Do note that this is an irreversible action).

Thanks!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Devarajan Mani 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Do you already have the list of roles you want to remove? Or are you asking how to get a report of roles that are unused?

Note that roles may be used in the following (list may not be complete):

• Space permissions
• Workflows (i.e. Conditions, Validators, and Post Functions
• Sharing options for Filters and Dashboards
• JQL statements

[Petru Simion _Simitech Ltd__]

Hi @Devarajan Mani ,

This is a really common challenge after migrating from Server to Cloud — especially when the site has grown over time. Roles often accumulate gradually and, after migration, you suddenly realise there are dozens (or hundreds) that are either unused, duplicated, or unclear in purpose.

Before deleting anything, it’s important to distinguish between:

✅ Roles that still exist in configuration

(even if not currently assigned to anyone)

❌ Roles that are genuinely unused across all projects

Because deleting a role that’s still assigned — or referenced somewhere — can cause permission gaps or confusion.

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A safe, optimized process looks something like this:

1️⃣ Identify where each role is actually used

For every role, you want to know:

• Which projects contain that role

• Which users/groups are assigned to it

• Whether the role is still meaningful or legacy-only

This gives you confidence before removing anything.

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2️⃣ Remove assignments first (if needed)

If a role is still assigned but shouldn’t be, detach the users/groups first.
That way you avoid permission surprises.

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3️⃣ Delete roles that are confirmed unused

Once you’re sure they aren’t applied anywhere, you can delete them safely.

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Doing this manually can be painful…

Native Jira Cloud doesn’t give you an easy, global way to see:

“Where is this role being used, and by whom, across all projects?”

So admins often end up clicking into dozens of project permission screens — which is slow, error-prone, and hard to track.

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A faster way: Roles Usage for Jira

To make this easier, our team built Roles Usage for Jira — it gives you full visibility into:

✔ Which users & groups hold which roles
✔ Where roles are assigned across projects
✔ Where overlaps, gaps or unused roles exist
✔ Easy filtering by role, user, or project
✔ CSV export for audit & cleanup planning

So instead of guessing or manually checking project-by-project, you can clearly see which roles are still active — and which are safe to remove.

This makes cleanup structured, compliant, and much less risky.

The results are exportable to csv for further analysis and storage.

Regards, 

Petru