Custom field default value not set automatically for existing issues

Question

I've created a custom field (select list) with a few values, chose a default value and made the field required.

-> Fruits (Apple, Banana, Pear)

-> Default: Pear

Now when filtering, I'm doing an advanced search:

"Fruit" not in ("Apple","Banana","Pear")

But I get an empty list. What I expected was to get a list of all issues, given that the default is "Pear".

Do I have to manually bulk change all items to be set to "Pear"? Problem is, that I've already set some issues to be "Apple" and "Banana". So I can't select all of them for bulk update. But as mentioned above I cannot filter for only those without that values!

What can I do to have all items set to the default value of "Pear"?

Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist] · Accepted Answer

You will not get a list of all issues when you try that. It seraches for issues where value is something other than what is given in the brackets.

If you want to set the default values where there is currently no value, search like this:

"Fruit" is EMPTY

And then bulk edit all those issues to set the default value.