Clone an issue with watchers

Question

Shouldn't cloning an issue be cloning the watchers list as well?  I have several items I'm planning out for the year and only changing the due date, but am adding around 9 watchers.  It would be so much more efficient if JIRA would truly clone an issue and not leave off watchers.

Additionally I can't seem to find any ways to add multiple watchers at once, other questions like this say solved but involve pay add-ons or enhancements requests marked off as Resolved/Won't Do.

Appreciate any responses.

Phebe Brown · Answer

The watchers field doesn't seem to be mentioned as an option in https://community.atlassian.com/forums/Jira-questions/Clone-an-issue-with-watchers/qaq-p/1078242

Greg Williams_nvfbk4 · Answer

I have found a workaround. It uses a custom field and Scriptrunner but it's possible another automation from the out-of-the-box Automation for Jira may work:

* I have a field called "Additional assignees" that would be used to add watchers to the ticket that gets cloned from JSM.
* I set the automation in the incoming cloned ticket's project so that when a cloned issue is UPDATED it adds the watchers from the "Additional assignees" field.
* We have it set that Scriptrunner updates any new tickets with some data needed, so when Scriptrunner causes the issue to update, the watchers are then added.

I would suggest (if you have a custom field that adds to the watchers) trying an A4J automation for running an update of some kind to add something like a "." in the comments, then that would be an update to the ticket.

It requires some work but based on my customer's requirements this was able to work for me.

Ali Zalzar · Answer

It's ridiculous when you want to move a ticket to another project, you have to use cloning but mid-way you have to pay to be the watcher! WHY? I shouldn't be cloning this in the first place, let alone to pay for another functionality!!!