Kanban board not showing query-based swimlanes (Jira Cloud)

[marty_chang]

I’m trying to use query-based swimlanes on a Jira Cloud Kanban board, but no swimlane headers are ever displayed. All issues appear in a single flat lane, even though:

• Swimlanes are configured to use Queries in Board settings

• The JQL for each swimlane is valid and returns issues in the issue navigator

• Those same issues are visible on the board itself

Concretely, I’m trying to show:

• A Generally Available swimlane for issues in the latest released fixVersion

• A Pending Release swimlane for issues in the earliest unreleased fixVersion

• An Everything Else lane for all other issues on the board

Instead, I see no swimlanes with all cards clumped together on the board.

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Steps to reproduce

1. Open a Kanban board.

2. Go to Board settings → Swimlanes and set:

   • Base swimlanes on = Queries

   • Add swimlane Generally Available with:

     fixVersion = latestReleasedVersion(SOP)

   • Add swimlane Pending Release with:

     fixVersion = earliestUnreleasedVersion(SOP)

   • Keep the default Everything Else lane.

3. Confirm the JQL returns results in Issues → Search and that those issues also appear on the Kanban board.

4. Return to the board and toggle Group by between None, Epic, and Queries.

Actual result:
The board shows no swimlane headers at all (Generally Available, Pending Release, Everything Else are never rendered). All issues appear in a single flat lane regardless of the Group by option.

Expected result:
The board should display separate horizontal swimlanes for each configured query (Generally Available, Pending Release, and Everything Else), containing the matching issues.

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @marty_chang 

I have so far not found anything in the Atlassian public Jira instance to indicate this is a known bug.

I have been trying to recreate your scenario, and I thought I encountered the same problem - the swimlanes not appearing. This was in a board I have had for an extended period of time with Epic, standard, and subtask issues displayed for a Company Managed Software project in my Free instance, and it also had some statuses mapped to the Kanban Backlog..

Then I tried with a brand new CM Software project with very few issues and in a Premium instance to which I have access. And it worked.

In this board I was not using the Backlog, and I had removed the board Sub-filter that would exclude items where the Fix Version was set to a Released version.

So I went back to my old board on my Free version and started trying a few things.

I tried toggling the Group By option to None, then back to Queries. That had no effect.

One difference was that my Free version board had the Backlog enabled. So I pulled the statuses mapped to the Kanban Backlog into board columns. The Swimlanes then appeared. Apparently the only issue I had in the earliest unreleased version was in a status that I previously had mapped to the backlog.

I also had the subfilter set up on my Free version board to exclude issues that were in Released Fix Versions, so the swimlane for latestReleasedVersion was not showing.

I made sure I have an issue in one of the later statuses in the earliest unreleased version, and reset the Status/Column mapping as I had it previously with the initial status in the Kanban Backlog. The swimlanes remained as there was still a card in the board that was in the earliest unreleased version.

I also made sure that I refreshed the board display after each change I made to the Versions (to release or unrelease them) and to the issue statuses and column mappings.

It is important to note that earliestUnreleasedVersion and latestReleasedVersion are based not on the dates in your Versions but rather then order in which they appear in your Releases tab.

The earliest Unreleased Version is the version that is Unreleased and closest to the bottom of the list.

The latest Released Version is the version that is Released and closest to the top of the list.

So, you may want to double check the ordering of your releases, refresh the results of the JQL you are running, try toggling the Group By to another option, refresh the board display, toggle the Group By back to Queries, and refresh the board display again.

You might also try creating a brand new Kanban board with the same configuration, just to see if that makes a difference.

[marty_chang]

Thank you for the detailed response, @Trudy Claspill ! Below is a bit more info on my setup, in case this helps surface any potential misses in configuration. 🙏

• All statuses are mapped to columns on the board except one that's intentionally unmapped. The kanban backlog column has no statuses mapped.
  • I've also tried with all statuses mapped to board columns. ❌
  • I've also tried with "On Hold" mapped to the kanban backlog. ❌
• Board sub-filter is empty.
• There is only one release in the "Unreleased" status defined in the project right now, so release ordering should not be an issue.

[marty_chang]

@Trudy Claspill your suggestion to create a new board solved my problem. 🤯

For posterity, I recorded a video showing how identical board configurations resulted in swimlanes in one board but not the other.

[Trudy Claspill]

I am glad that it worked in a new board. It is confounding that it did not work in the original board.

I can only suspect that something may be off in the backend data for the original board. The only way to find out for sure would be to open a support case directly with Atlassian to examine that data to see if they could find an error in it.

I have seen other times where something that should work didn't, but recreating the same thing from scratch did work, specifically with Automation Rules. It seems that sometimes something happens there with a rule getting "corrupted" when being edited. I don't think there has ever been a root cause identified in those cases, and Atlassian might not be able to identify a root cause in your case either. It doesn't hurt to ask them though.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @marty_chang 

Can you please show images of your board configuration.

"The default Kanban board sub-filter ((fixVersion in unreleasedVersions() OR fixVersion is EMPTY)), removes issues from the board if they don't have the Fix Versions field in their configured screen or if it's set to hidden in the field configuration"

Is this the case?

[marty_chang]

Hi @Marc -Devoteam- thank you for asking! Here is a screenshot showing the two swimlane queries.

• Generally Available: fixVersion = latestReleasedVersion(SOP)
• Pending Release: fixVersion = earliestUnreleasedVersion(SOP)

And the screenshot below shows that there are issues in the Pending Release query.

And one final screenshot showing that when Group is set to "Queries" on the board, no swimlanes show up even though the work items in the above screenshot are present on the board, along with other work items.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @marty_chang 

In using the JQL like you do you can specify a version between the brackets ().

The JQL statements you are using look on date, so you can specify a name.

[marty_chang]

Thanks for the tip, Marc. I'm trying not to avoid having to update an explicit version every time a new release happens, which is why I'm using the project scope inside the earliestUnreleasedVersions() and latestReleasedVersion() functions.

But the bigger confusion is why the simple query obviously returns issues but doesn't produce a swimlane on the board.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @marty_chang 

I have tried your JQL statement by creating a version SOP in my instance, released the version and searched based on using the SOP between the brackets leads to an error.

Then I realised that you where using the project key, but then on a board, you do need to check the time frame on a kanban board and the sub filter.

[marty_chang]

Hi @Marc -Devoteam- thanks for the note!

• Board sub-filter is empty on my board.
• Completed work items time frame is "4 weeks".

I really appreciate your continued responses and your attempt to reproduce this issue! 🙏 I'm still scratching my head on this one...

My Corp IT team is also looking into this issue... maybe they or Atlassian Support will find something on the back end that I can't see.

[Marc -Devoteam-]

Hi @marty_chang 

You do need to set a board sub-filter based on fix version, otherwise fix version will not be taken into account by the board.

[Trudy Claspill]

@Marc -Devoteam- 

A sub-filter should not be needed. See the reply I posted.

I had a board with no sub-filter and the swimlanes appeared.

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @marty_chang

First thing I’d check is whether your board is actually set to Swimlanes → Queries. If it’s set to anything else, your JQL swimlanes won’t show at all.

Then take a look at the board filter. The swimlane queries only work on what the board already returns, so if your filter excludes those issues, nothing will show up and it looks like it’s broken.

Also, if no issues match a swimlane, Jira just doesn’t show it  so it can feel like it’s missing even though it’s technically working.

In most cases it ends up being one of those three.

[marty_chang]

Thank you for the guidance, @Arkadiusz Wroblewski !

I did check these gotchas and I believe I've taken the right actions. See screenshots I'd posted in another comment.

• Swimlane is set to Queries
• Board shows issues in the swimlane query
• Board has issues that match a swimlane and issues that fall into "Everything Else"

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Yes indeed.

Besides @Marc -Devoteam-  pointed you on some important things.

[Frédéric Tardieu]

Hi @marty_chang ,

I'm the author of huminder's Board Studio app, which is specifically designed to render any board structure with swimlanes/grouping, with a space or a JQL filter as an input. In your case, it should show the right headers in the board, and the dependencies between work items if any. You may give it a try, it should work out of the box using released fix version as horizontal (or vertical or group) field dimension.

Cheers, F.

[marty_chang]

Thanks for the tip @Frédéric Tardieu ! If the standard functionality won't do what it's supposed to do, I'll take a look at the Program Board app.

[Frédéric Tardieu]

Hi @marty_chang ,

For your information, app has been renamed from Program Board to Board Studio, reflecting its generic nature. Don't hesitate to give feedback should you try it ;-)