Why is my Category field showing empty across all projects when there is a value there?

[Stacy Bolen]

All of a sudden my Category field is showing empty for all projects even though one is assigned. I used to be able to do a jql query on specific category names, but now it says every issue is empty. Why? 

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Stacy Bolen 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

It is possible for multiple custom fields to have the same name. Are you sure you are including the correct Category field in your JQL?

Are you trying to filter based on the built-in Category field that applies only to Business/Work Management projects?

[Stacy Bolen]

It is the same locked Category field that I have used for years. All of my projects still show the Category, but the issue level doesn't show it anymore. This just happened in the last week or so.

[Trudy Claspill]

In what type of project(s) do the issues you are viewing exist? Get the project Type information from the View All Projects page under the Projects menu.

All of my projects still show the Category, but the issue level doesn't show it anymore. 

Can you provide a screen image of a project showing the Category, and an image of an issue not showing the Category with an annotation for where you expect to see the Category?

Can you share with us the JQL query you are trying to create?

[Stacy Bolen]

[Stacy Bolen]

The JQL pulls the correct population, but the field in the return is blank.

[Trudy Claspill]

Thank you for that additional information.

You are looking at two different fields.

Notice that the autocomplete for selecting a field in the filters shows these two different fields.

"category" with a lower case "c" is the value assigned in the Category field in the Project Details screen.

"Category" with an upper case "C" is a custom issue field of type "Category". This is a built-in field provided by the System. It used within Business projects only. It is a selection list specific to the project for assigning a categorization value to each issue.

There is no connection between these two fields. Having values in one has no inherent relation to a value in the other.

When you filter using the "category" field you are requesting that Jira return the issues in the Projects where the Project-level "category" field matches your criteria. This in no manner relates to filtering for issues based on the the issue field named Category.

[Stacy Bolen]

Based on that explanation I should have a field with a lower case c available in my field drop down. Why can I not add that field?

What is the most strange is that this is the first time in years I have had an issue. 

[Trudy Claspill]

"category" with a lower case "c" is not an issue-level field. It is a project-level field, like Project Name and Project Key and Project Lead. The drop down provides only issue-level fields, so project-level fields like "category" will not be found in that drop down.

As to this being the first time in years that you have encountered this issue, it is hard for me to speculate on that when I don't know about your historic use.

Are you saying that previously in the output of issues from a search you could see the value "RFA" (from the project-level category field) displayed with each issue, along with issue-level field data. To the best of my knowledge project-level fields have not been supported for display alongside the issue-level data in the results of filters. But I can't say that I specifically recall testing that prior to today.