Ticket automatically moves back to "Done" after manually transitioning to "In Progress"

[May Reuven]

I'm experiencing unexpected automatic status transitions on a Jira ticket.

What's happening: I have a ticket that was moved to "Done" status. Since this task involves multiple PRs, I manually transitioned it back to "In Progress." However, over the past week, the ticket keeps automatically moving back to "Done" on its own — without any manual action from my team or me.

I've moved it back to "In Progress" multiple times now, and each time it reverts to "Done" within a few hours.

What I've checked so far:

• Reviewed our automation rules — nothing seems to match this behavior
• Checked the ticket's activity log but couldn't identify what's triggering the transition
• No team member is manually changing it

My questions:

1. Is there a way to see exactly which automation rule or integration is triggering a specific transition?
2. Could a linked PR merge or a webhook be causing this?
3. Is there a detailed audit log beyond the activity feed that shows the source of status changes?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Ajay _view26_]

Hi @May Reuven 

Yes — there are a few places to check beyond the normal issue activity feed.

First, look at the issue History tab and see who/what is shown as the actor when it goes back to Done. If it says “Automation for Jira”, that points to a rule actor.

If not, I’d check the project/global automation audit log and filter around the exact time of the transition.

If no automation shows up, the next suspects are workflow triggers/post-functions or a connected development tool. Jira Cloud can transition issues automatically from connected dev events, and Bitbucket can also transition Jira issues during PR merge flows. So I’d review:
- Automation audit logs
- The workflow used by that issue type, especially anything on the transition to Done
- Any development-tool workflow triggers / PR merge behavior
- Any third-party app or webhook that could be calling the transition API

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hello @May Reuven 

I would start with the issue History tab and check who the actor is when the status goes back to Done.

If it says Automation for Jira, then check the automation audit log for that same timestamp. If it shows an app or service user instead, then I would look at integrations or workflow customizations.

In most cases, this is not Jira doing something on its own, but another configuration reacting to your manual status change.

[Natalia_Kovalchuk_SaaSJet_]

Hi @May Reuven !

It looks like something in Jira is still updating the status of your work tickets in the background. The most common reasons for that are automation, connected integration, webhooks, or dev-related actions.

You can check the native Jira ticket history (History tab) to understand exactly what changed, when it happened, and who was responsible. But sometimes it may not be enough. That is why I can recommend you try Issue History for Jira (Work Item History) app provided by the SaaSJet team. 

Using this app, you can do the following:

• see the full history of all your ticket changes in one place
• check who or what changed the status
• filter changes and spot patterns over time
• use the bulk revert feature to fix unwanted changes faster

So, if your tickets keep moving back to the Done status, the app helps you identify the cause and quickly fix it using the bulk revert functionality. You can restore the status (and other fields) to the correct value in a few clicks, instead of changing each ticket manually.

Hope it will be helpful!