Show tickets where user is not present in multi user picker field

[Danilo Simic]

I would like to create a filter where all issues where I am not present in the "Phase 1 Local Approvals" field (multi user picker field).

The following JQL does not work:

"Phase 1 Local Approvals:[User Picker (multiple users)]" not in (xxx)

xxx is my user ID

However the opposite works fine (shows issues where I am present in that field):

"Phase 1 Local Approvals:[User Picker (multiple users)]" in (xxx)

Could this be a limitation from Jira?

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

In what way is the JQL not working?

When you have a field that can have multiple values if you want to find the issues where the field does not have a specific value and you also want the issues where the field has no value at all, then you need two criteria.

"Multiple User Picker[User Picker (multiple users)]" not in (xxx) or 
"Multiple User Picker[User Picker (multiple users)]" is empty

With a multi-select list when you use the operator "not in" the comparison between your specified values and the values in the field occurs only when the field actually contains values. If the field is empty, no comparison can be done, and so the issues with the empty field are not included in the result. You have to add the second criteria to also get the issues that have no value in the field.

[Danilo Simic]

This solved the problem. I was not aware that "not in" should be used only when the field has a value.

Thank you very much for the help. 

My guardian angel, helping me out with yet another issue I was having :D

[Danilo Simic]

I just tried the following with similar results.

JQL that works:

"Phase 1 Local Approvals:[User Picker (multiple users)]" = currentUser()

JQL that does not work:

"Phase 1 Local Approvals:[User Picker (multiple users)]" != currentUser()

Note that in both cases the green checkmark next to the JQL function is present.