Using translate field option custom field

[Anne van Susteren-Finger]

Within Jira you have the option Translate Field for custom fields. I already found the following artikel on it:

Translate a custom field | Jira Service Management Cloud | Atlassian Documentation

But now is the question when u use it, where can you find the translation? When I click on update I can not see the translation. What am I doing wrong ?

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Hey @Anne van Susteren-Finger ,

Yeah... this is quite tricky and, IMO, not so intuitive. Basically, you would need to change your account language preferences to see how things look when translated. 

There's also this bug reported related to field descriptions and translations: JRACLOUD-78918: Custom field description translations are not displayed on updating language preferences 

On top of that, admins actually cannot see the translations 🫠 unless changing their language settings. There's this feature request which kinda relates to your requirement: JRACLOUD-6798: Allow admins to translate items configurable in the administration section 
But yes... far from ideal UX I would say :/

I remember we did pull these things from the database when one of our clients was on DC, but on cloud, I'm not sure if there's a way to pull all translations and values from the whole site 👀

Cheers,
Tobi

[Alexander Stern _ Shern Consulting OÜ]

Hi Anne van Susteren-Finger,

This can be a bit confusing at first.

The Translate field option in Jira is mainly for translating the field name and its options based on the user’s language, not for showing multiple values at the same time in the UI.

A few key points:

• Translations are only visible when the user’s profile language is set to that specific language

• You will not see the translated version while editing the field unless your own language matches the translation

• The original value is still stored, Jira just displays the translated label depending on language

So if you want to verify it works:

1. Add a translation for the field or its options

2. Change your Jira profile language to that language

3. Refresh and view the issue again

You should then see the translated version instead of the default one.

If you still do not see it, check:

• that the translation was saved correctly

• that you are translating the correct context (field name vs options)

• that your project supports multiple languages (in some setups this can be limited)

In short, nothing is wrong, it is just language-based display rather than something you see side by side in edit mode.