Why do tasks suddenly inherit from parent? (Potential bug)

[Nathalie Strnad]

Hi there, 
As of last week, Tasks and Stories inherit certain fields from the parent (Epic) which they didn't use to before. Because some fields on the Epic are not populated, it auto-empties the same fields on the task I'm creating. Concrete example: 

1. I click the "+ Create" button on top.
2. I fill in all the info, including Assignee, Label, and some custom fields (Discipline, Phase). 
3. I hit create. 
4. The task or story is created, but the Assignee, Label, Discipline and Phase are empty. 

If I repeat the above but do not assign it a parent during creation, the fields remain populated.

There are no workflows or automations running that cause this. It suddenly started at some point last week. 

Any help would be much appreciated.


Edit: 

After fiddling with our workflow for subtasks, we found this also solved the issue above. Why a workflow set up for subtasks affected tasks and stories I don't know, neither do I know why turning it off and on again has fixed it. Either way, the issue is resolved. 

[Bill Sheboy]

Hi @Nathalie Strnad -- Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Based on what you describe, you may have an automation rule which is updating the fields. 

I recommend working with your project admin to check the automation logs and the work item history to confirm this, and why the rule is making the changes.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Nathalie Strnad]

Hi @Bill Sheboy 

Thank you for your reply. I highly doubt it is an automation set up by us because none of the automation rules we have do anything like this and they haven't been touched in months. Yet this issue suddenly appeared. 

The work item history says this: 

• Nathalie Strnad created the Work item. 
• Nathalie Strnad changed the Parent.
• Nathalie Strnad updated the Labels. 

The first two have always been present when creating tasks in our project, the third one is new. What is extra confusing is that it doesn't mention the other three fields (assignee, discipline or phase) being updated.  It just quietly empties them. 

[Bill Sheboy]

The history / changelog could still show you as the person making the change when a rule, workflow, or addon made the change.

From the global automation list, did you check the audit log to filter by your work item key?  That will show any rules which directly accessed it.

If an addon / app performed the change, you may need to check for any recently installed or updated apps by site admins.

And if it is neither of those, I recommend working with your Jira Site Admin to ask the Atlassian Support team to take a look.  They may see something we are missing.

https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

When you hear back from them, please post what you learn to benefit the community.

[Nathalie Strnad]

Yeah I checked the audit log, it shows me that three automations did run when I created the task: 

1. If task is in To Do, change Milestone to "Current Milestone" (success)

2. Set subtask in To Do if parent is not on backlog (no actions performed since it is not a subtask)

3. If someone gets mentioned in description, add them to Watch list (success)

As far as I'm aware no updates or new apps were installed. I will check with the admin again just in case. 

Would you happen to know the trick for how to actually contact the support team? I've been trying to get in touch using the same link you sent since Monday but it only gets me as far as the chatbot.

Thank you again, have a lovely weekend. 

[Bill Sheboy]

You appear to be on a paid license level, and so your Jira Site Admin can submit a ticket to Atlassian Support at the link below.  Users who are not at that admin level, or higher, cannot submit a ticket.

https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

[Nathalie Strnad]

After trying out some things we found a solution to the problem; I've updated my initial post. Thank you for your support in this @Bill Sheboy