Project key not updating

[chandag]

Hello Team,

We have changed the project key (SRS to SRSINC) of a project and when creating a new project with the key SRS, it is showing that the key "SRS" is still being used by another project, even though we have changed it. (see attachment).

Kindly suggest

Regards
Chandan Raj

[Josh Steckler]

Hi,

This is a limitation of the ability to change project keys.

If you have issues in a project, then change the key, those old issues will still retain information about the old key, so it can forward users to the newer key.

A side effect of this is that you cannot reuse a key in Jira if you have existing issues that have historically used that key. The only ways to get around this would be to delete all issues that have ever used that key, or to hack around in the database, which I highly suggest you do not do.

[Karie Kelly]

I was doing a test project and actually did delete the issues - but, the key seems to still be retained - even when no issues exist.  It seems that if only the project exists, the reindexing that is triggered should no longer retain the old project key at the project level, allowing its reuse.  The issue arises when you are establishing your instance and start to utilize or bring on new projects, where you may not get the organization right the first time given that it takes some experience before really figuring it out.  Would also suggest documentation state to use a bit more robust keys initially to minimize the potential need for reuse or reuse conflict.  

I am not new to JIRA - administered it for almost 5 years; but, took a break for about 5 years and it takes a bit to get back into it and so I don't believe coming across this issue would be unheard of for others. 

[IFFranciscoME]

Supporting a deletion and/or re-use of Project Keys is definitely not only ergonomics after-the-fact, but a way to re-organize the projects as desired and needed by the user.

Technical solution for this feature:

If Project A needs to have the project key X, but Project B has it, then change the Project Key of B, and all of its issues, from X to a Y, with the Y as one created automatically with an standard and meaningless new key, e.g. aBc123.

The Project B, and all of the associated issues, will have the Project Key Y (randomly created) and Project A will be able to have linked the Project Key X

Principle here is: Let the user decide the level of consistency in the refactoring of tags/project keys, etc.