I can't delete Issue ( Story ) as Jira Administrator

Question

Hi

I am a Jira Administrator and I am trying to delete Task ( Story Card) along with Its Sub-tasks.

I have given permission to Project, and I am a Jira Admin and Project admin. There is a Admin permission given already. I have checked 100 times.

But every time I try to delete a Issue / Task / Story / Sub task , I get error I don't have permission.

I really appreciate your help and direction.

- Best Amit

Max Foerster - K15t · Answer

Hi Amit,

from your description, it's not clear to me if you have the "Delete Issues" project permission. You were clearly talking about the "Jira Administrator" global permission and the "Administer Projects" project permission (and Browse Projects of course) but both of them won't enable you to delete issues in a project. Do all issue types share the same workflow? Have you ever used workflow properties? But please check the project permissions first.

Best, Max

Joe Pitt · Answer

Do not delete issues. When you delete it is GONE. Hardly a week goes by without someone wanting to restore an issue. Deleting issues will come back and bite you when it is the most inconvenient. I suggest closing with a resolution value of Deleted anything you want to delete. I implement a special transition only the project lead can execute and it requires filling in a reason field from a select list (such as entered in error, OBE, Duplicate, Other) and explanation text.

Deleting issues destroys historical data. Missing issue numbers will eventually cause a question about what it was and why was it deleted even if it was done properly. Missing data always brings in the question of people hiding something that may have looked bad.

The only viable way to restore an issue is to create a new instance of JIRA and restore a backup that has the issues. Then export them to a csv file and import them to your production instance. You will lose the history.

If you still want to delete issues you need the delete issue permission in the permission scheme.  Just being an administrator does not, and never should, give you permission to do everything.  That is a very bad security posture.