Need help understanding user and group data transfer options

[Steve Maring]

I need to carve off a specific set of Jira projects and users to another Atlassian Cloud instance.

The source instance has roughly 2,500 users, but the destination should only contain a targeted subset of about 250 users. We cannot license all 2,500 active users in the destination, so the “All users and groups” option is not acceptable.

I understand the first option, “Users and groups associated with selected projects,” to mean users and groups directly referenced by the selected projects. Based on the description, that appears to include users referenced in issue data and project configuration, such as:

• assignees
• reporters / creators
• commenters
• user picker custom fields
• workflow references
• permission scheme references
• project role references

I am trying to understand the second option:

“Users, groups, and members of groups referenced in the selected projects.”

The description says this copies users who are “not directly referenced” but who are members of groups referenced in the selected projects.

My question is: what exactly counts as a referenced group?

For example, does this only include groups used in project configuration, such as:

• project roles
• permission schemes
• workflows
• issue security schemes
• notification schemes
• custom field contexts

Or does it also include groups mentioned in user-generated project content, such as issue comments, descriptions, or other text fields?

This distinction matters because if “referenced group” only means groups used in project configuration, we can reduce the copied user population by cleaning up project roles, permission schemes, and workflows before transfer.

But if any group name mentioned in issue content can cause all members of that group to be copied, then the second option could unexpectedly bring over many more users than intended.

Can you clarify exactly which Jira objects/data sources are scanned when determining:

1. directly referenced users, and
2. referenced groups whose full membership will be copied?