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Importing csv to existing project failing with invalid type and status (even though they are valid)

Importing csv to existing project failing with invalid type and status (even though they are valid)

Hi,

So i'm doing a csv import, just one comma separated row

The relevant columns are

Issue Type, Status

Story, Done

Mapping all looks fine

Issue Type (csv) -> Work Type (Jira)

Status -> Status

And yet when i import:

Error in issue type "task" — not found in target jira project "<jira project>",Issue type task is missing in your Jira project.

Error in issue status "to do" — not found in target jira project "<jira project>",

Issue status to do is missing in your Jira project

Which is accurate since the project does not have that worktype and status. But why is it trying to map to them anyway since i have explicitly mapped to the correct (and existent) type and status

Thanks

2 answers

0 votes

Hi @Samit,

This is a frustrating one, because from what you described the CSV itself looks simple and the mapping appears to be correct: Issue Type = Story and Status = Done.

A few things I would check first:

Make sure the CSV values do not contain hidden whitespace or small typos
For example:
- Story instead of Story
- Done instead of Done
- different capitalization
- values copied from Excel or another tool with invisible characters
Check whether Jira is falling back to default values
The fact that the import tries to use Task and To Do suggests that Jira may not be accepting the values from the CSV and is falling back to project defaults somewhere in the import flow.
Verify the project configuration
Confirm that:
- Story is available in that specific project
- Done exists in the workflow used by Story
- importing directly into Done is allowed or supported in that context
Even if Done exists in the workflow, importing directly into a final status can sometimes be more sensitive than importing into the initial status and then transitioning later.
Try a minimal CSV
I would test with only:
- Summary
- Issue Type
- Status
This helps confirm whether the problem is really with issue type/status mapping, or whether another mapped field is affecting the import.

This is exactly the type of problem my app is designed to solve more safely.

For transparency: I work on an Atlassian Marketplace app called Excel to Jira Importer and Updater. It supports both Excel workbooks and CSV files, and it lets you review and correct the data before anything is written to Jira.

For cases like this, the useful part is that you can map your own source values to Jira values - for example your CSV issue types or statuses to the actual issue types and statuses available in Jira. You can also catch and fix small mistakes, typos, inconsistent names, or unexpected values before running the import.

So instead of discovering after the import that Jira used Task / To Do, you can review the planned result row by row first and see what will be created, updated, skipped, or blocked.

That said, for the built-in Jira CSV import, I would first try the minimal CSV test and check whether Jira is rejecting the Story or Done values and silently falling back to defaults.

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0 votes

Hi @Samit

If issue type Task and status TO DO is not used on workflow related to the work type mapped in the CSV these errors will occur.

You can't use work types and statuses in the CSV if they are not used in the space.

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Thanks @Marc -Devoteam- - But as the original problem states, i'm not importing status of To Do , the status in the csv is Done (and far as i can see correctly mapped at the time of importing), so why is Jira trying to import it as status To do and work type of Task even though the csv is set to Story (it's essentially ignoring those 2 columns column . So essentially my question boils down to - Why is jira ignoring the mappings and what can i do to ensure it does not and imports the correct work type (Story) and status (Done) - both of which exist in the workflow?

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Hi @Samit

Can you provide your mapping on the import and the error log

Also what are the steps you are taking?

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Thanks @Marc -Devoteam- - As screenshots above, nothing too complex

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Hi @Samit

Are there hidden rows or columns in the CSV?

Copy the rows 1 and 2 to aa new tab and export this as csv, will the import work then.

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HI @Marc -Devoteam- No there were no extra rows, But to be sure I created a brand new csv (same data) as well as removed any surplus columns that would not be mapped Plus made the csv headers like for like with the jira mapping fields

So every column has a corresponding Jira field.

And same error

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Hi @Samit

Please notice that there are 2 different ways to import issues from CSV:

Only available to Jira administrators from Jira Administration -> External System Import. In here all the statuses are available to be mapped.
- Documentation page: Importing data from CSV
Available to non admin users as well from: Filters -> Advanced Issue Search -> ... -> Import Issues from CSV. In here you can only map a sub-set of fields.
- Documentation page: Create issues with the CSV importer

I have checked the fields that can be mapped when using method #2 and Status is indeed not present in there.

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Hi @Marc -Devoteam- The space level does not seem have any import options

So i'm using System > External system Import > Csv > and then in the space section putting the space name. Thanks

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Please notice that there are 2 different ways to import issues from CSV:

Only available to Jira administrators from Jira Administration -> External System Import. In here all the statuses are available to be mapped.
- Documentation page: Importing data from CSV
Available to non admin users as well from: Filters -> Advanced Issue Search -> ... -> Import Issues from CSV. In here you can only map a sub-set of fields.
- Documentation page: Create issues with the CSV importer

I have checked the fields that can be mapped when using method #2 and Status is indeed not present in there.

Also do you have the correct permisisons on the space, what if you do the import without the status column?

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Thanks @Marc -Devoteam- I was using option 1 (which the document says Status and Work Type is valid and must match those that are allowed by the Workflow).

As I have mentioned before, both worktype (Story) and status (Done) are supported by the workflow and yet the import keeps trying to import them as work type = task and status = to do (even though there are no blank rows and no status / worktype like that in the csv).

Far as i can see procedurally i am not doing anything incorrectly, just the import doesn't seem to do what it's meant to be doing.

I'll need to find an alternative way. Thanks

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Hi @Samit

One issue could cause this.

Is there a custom field named "Status", then rename this field.
As import can't make a difference on field names, f they are named exactly the same.

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Hi @Marc -Devoteam- Nope - just one standard Status field which is Locked (no customs field of that name)

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HI @Samit

Validate that the status name in the CSV doesn't have a mismatch in name, which means there should not be any spelling mistakes, case sensitivity should be adhered to, and no space padding at the initial or end of the record name.

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Importing csv to existing project failing with invalid type and status (even though they are valid)

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