how to limit the lst of assignees in the kanban board filter?

[VINCENT DUPONT]

Hello, 

we have a Jira project that exists for multiple years. In the meantime, some people are gone and their account is disabled, but their name is still used as Assignee on old issues.

These people's name are still visible in the kanban board filter. We would like to remove those names from the filter. Is this possible?

I tried to change the Filter with a JLQ like 'and assignee not in (xxx)', but it does not seem to work

thank you

Vincent

[Arkadiusz Wroblewski]

Hi @VINCENT DUPONT  

Those avatars appear because disabled users are still assigned to issues on the board. The best fix is to find and bulk reassign those tickets.

If you filter them out via JQL instead, remember to include `OR assignee IS EMPTY` (e.g., `assignee NOT IN (id1, id2) OR assignee IS EMPTY`), or you'll accidentally hide all unassigned issues.

Best,

Arek🤠

[Swathi Acharya]

Hello @VINCENT DUPONT

Good day!

Welcome to Atlassian Community!

Currently, Jira's default behavior keeps inactive users visible in the Quick Filters. We are tracking a feature request to update this functionality here: JRACLOUD-97741.

In the meantime, you can clear them out using this quick workaround:

1. Run a JQL search for the inactive users (e.g., assignee in (inactiveUsers())).

2. Use the Bulk Edit tool to reassign their open tickets to an active team member.

3. Refresh your backlog, and their names will disappear from the filter list.

I hope this helps!

[Viswanathan Ramachandran]

In Jira Cloud, you can’t directly limit the Assignee dropdown on a Kanban board. The Assignee list is populated based on who can be assigned issues in the project, not by the board filter. 

However, depending on what you’re trying to achieve, there are several options:

Option 1: Filter the Kanban board to show only certain assignees (Recommended)

If you only want the board to display issues assigned to specific people, modify the board filter.

project = ABC
AND assignee IN (a,b,c)

or 

project = ABC
AND assignee IN membersOf("Developers") 

 Option 2: use quick filters if that is helpful

Option 3: use component/s or teams instead of Assignees

If you’re referring to the Assignee filter at the top of the Kanban board

If you mean the Assignee dropdown in the board’s search/filter bar, there is no native way in Jira Cloud to limit the users shown there. Jira automatically lists users who are relevant to the board/project based on the indexed issues and permissions. This behaviour isn’t configurable.

[Viswanathan Ramachandran]

However, you can still customise but only indirectly:

• Create separate boards with different board filters.
• Use project permissions to reduce assignable users.
• Use marketplace apps (such as those from Adaptavist or Appfire) if you need advanced assignee restrictions or custom workflows.