eliminating duplicate fields with csv or rest

[Georg Kellerer]

Hello all,

we migrated from jira server to jira cloud last year. as described in

https://support.atlassian.com/jira/kb/merge-two-custom-fields-into-one/

i wanted to remove duplicate fields after the migration. But the csv exporter is limitted to 10.000 issues and because of the number of our issues i would have to repeat the steps multiple times. so i wante to solve my problem with the rest api.

The call i was using looks like tis:

https://myorganisation.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/search/jql?jql=customfield_10163%20is%20not%20EMPTY%20or%20customfield_10148%20is%20not%20EMPTY%20or%20customfield_10146%20is%20not%20EMPTY%20or%20customfield_10160%20is%20not%20EMPTY%20order%20by%20created%20ASC&maxResults=100&fields={customfield_10148,customfield_10038,customfield_10146,customfield_10001,customfield_10163,customfield_10037,customfield_10036,customfield_10160}

My search produces not the results i was expecting. for e.g.:

{

    "issues":  [

                   {

                       "expand":  "renderedFields,names,schema,operations,editmeta,changelog,versionedRepresentations",

                       "id":  "36583",

                       "self":  "https://myorganisation.atlassian.net/rest/api/3/issue/36583",

                       "key":  "TEST-100",

                       "fields":  {

                                      "customfield_10001":  null

                                  }

                   },

   ],

    "nextPageToken":  "xxyyzz",

    "isLast":  false

}

1) In this issue none of my four search criterias is present so would expect that this issue is not in my results

2) the four criterias are not part of the fields list. In jira server it was necessary to reindex the data but in jira cloud is not. Isn't it? so why are the fields not their even though i put them in the fields list in my rest call?

i would be very happy if someone could explain me what i did wrong or misunderstood.

Thanks,

Georg

[David Day_ Appcento]

Hey Georg,
I see you're hitting the classic post-JCMA migration headache. The issue you're experiencing with the REST API is actually a known behavior after Server-to-Cloud migrations.

What's happening:
1. The "(migrated)" fields are created by JCMA when it encounters fields with the same name in the destination Cloud site
2. The REST API sometimes doesn't return these fields immediately because they need to be reindexed after migration (there's a known bug: JRACLOUD-83271)
3. The fields appear in the UI but not in API responses because they're not fully indexed yet

What worked for me:
1. First, wait 24-48 hours after migration for the reindex to complete
2. If fields still don't appear in the API, contact Atlassian Support to trigger a manual reindex
3. Once the fields are visible in the API, you can use the /rest/api/3/field endpoint to get the full list including "(migrated)" fields

For the actual merge:
The CSV export/import approach has the 10K issue limit, which is frustrating for large instances. I've been working on a solution for this exact problem - an app that scans all your fields, detects every "(migrated)" pair automatically, and merges them safely by copying migrated values into originals only when the original is empty.If you're interested, you can check it out here: Migration Field Cleanup for Jira 

The key is to scan first, review safety classifications for each pair, then merge in batches. This way you avoid data loss and don't have to manually check each field.
Hope this helps point you in the right direction!

[Georg Kellerer]

Hello, 

we're talking about time date fields like begin date, ende date... select fields and plain text fields. Customfield_10001 is the default team field. Team (migrated) for example is shown on the frontend with a value where team is empty. In my rest call Team is eimpty as expected but the value of team (migrated), custumfield_10160 is not in the list

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Hey @Georg Kellerer ,

Apologies for the delay - I've got back from Team and then caught some kind of fever, so I just got back to my feet.

Anyway, have you managed to resolve this in the meantime?

[Tomislav Tobijas]

Hey @Georg Kellerer ,

Which field types are we talking about here? Text fields, select/picker fields or something else?

Also, can you see values on these work items (e.g., item with ID 36583) on the frontend UI as well or not? For example, if you're seeing the value on the Jira work item view, can you re-check if you're looking at the correct field when doing a REST API call? 👀

I do know for this one JRACLOUD-83271: Following a S2C migration, reindexing is not automatically occurring resulting in inconsistent JQL results in Issue Search > as a workaround, the section says, you would need to reach out to the support team to do the fix.

Cheers,
Tobi