Jira System Fields

donhames
Contributor
February 2, 2024

Is there a way to get a list of the system fields that cannot be removed from an issue? For example, the Summary field. I am cleaning up a Cloud instance, and everything has been altered. I am just trying to go to a known starting point.

Are the system fields custom fields, or are they listed somewhere like custom fields?

Thanks for the assist!

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Trudy Claspill
Community Leader
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February 2, 2024
donhames
Contributor
February 3, 2024

Thank you, Trudy. I will start running some REST API calls until I can get what I need. This is a great help!

1 vote
Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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February 2, 2024

Hi dhames,

Yes, and no, and maybe.

There are three types of field when we're looking at this - system fields, custom fields, and then a "grey area".

In the grey area, fields are listed as custom fields.

System fields are the simple ones - you won't see them in the list of custom fields, and there is nowhere to list them because there's no need to.  You can't delete or edit them, so there's no need for a list. 

If you've been an admin for a while, you'll probably be able to identify most of them instinctively - summary, description, affects and fix version, components, etc, but there is one sneaky one a lot of us miss.  "Environment" is a text field like description, that you won't be able to remove.  It is unusual for a system field in that it has no additional functionality, it's identical to a long-text custom field.

TLDR: don't worry about the system fields, just work off the custom field list, it won't tell you about system fields.

Custom fields and the grey fields are mixed together.  Grey fields are created when you have apps or applications that need them.  An easy way to see them is that most of them will show as "locked" in the list (locked means "you can not reconfigure the field because you will break it").

For the locked fields, you'll need to work out which apps they come from, and remove the app that needs them if you want rid of them, after justifying getting rid of the app!  (I take the easy approach - if it's locked, it's  system field.  Ignore it)

For the rest of the grey fields, I'm afraid you are stuck.  You will need to investigate each custom field to see if an app needs it.

On the bright side, the last app I saw that created a field it needed that did not make it clear in the description was about 8 years ago.  You should find every custom field created by an app tells you what the app that needed it is.

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