How to transition multiple issues status in Jira Cloud?

[Shaun Mahoney]

How do I change the status of multiple issues at the same time? Say I have several items in a state called In Progress, then I want to shift-select many of the them in the backlog list, and change the status to Done.

The documentation here:  https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/transition-an-issue/ 

under the section Transition multiple issues says "you can press the Shift or Ctrl key to select and transition multiple issues from the backlog to the next status in your project's workflow:". But how do you actually do it? I can shift-select multiple items, but then what? Changing the status in one of the selected items only changes that item. I think the documentation is missing the key piece of info which is what do you click on next after selecting multiple issues.

As far as I can tell, all the criteria listed in that section of the documentation are met.

[Walter Buggenhout · Accepted solution]

Hi @Shaun Mahoney,

Changing the status of multiple issues this way implies you are able to drag and drop them all to a column or status you can see in the same view. 

You cannot drop them into a column that is not on your screen (e.g. if your backlog is a separate view) or if the configuration of your project's workflow don't allow certain transitions (in that case, an indication is shown in columns you can't drag the selected issues into).

If your bulk drag and drop doesn't work for whatever reason, you should able to use bulk change instead. Check out this support article for more details (while it is for data center, it works pretty much the same way in cloud).

Hope this helps!

[Shaun Mahoney]

Thanks for the reply Walter. I cannot drag and drop multiple items in the board view. I can select mulitple items, but when dragged and dropped, it only moves the one dragged item. The rest remain selected in the original column. As I can drag and drop a single item, I don't think the workflow transitions are the problem.

As for the bulk change, I had read that article and verified the permissions are set correctly from what I can tell. However I cannot find the 'Tools' menu that article refers to: 

• Perform a search with the required filters to produce a list of issues and select Tools > Bulk Change.

Any idea where I can find Tools?

Then that article mentions:

• Bulk edit issues in the Backlog. Use Shift+select to choose multiple issues and then right-click the selected items to start the bulk change operation.

 When I right-click, I do not see anything to start the bulk change:

[Walter Buggenhout]

In cloud, navigate to Filters > Advanced issue search. Then search for the issues you want to move.

In the top right corner of your screen, click on the ... button:

Bulk change should be there. If it isn't, that would mean you don't have the necessary permission.

[Shaun Mahoney]

There it is! Thanks for the help, I never would have found that.