Cleaning up old issues and epics

kdarlow

Hello,

I created a project that I wish to use with my team, and in the process, I created a bunch of test issues and epics.  I would like to delete/clean these up so when the project and associated Kanban board go into use, people do not see a bunch of random issues/epics.

I am the site admin, so what would the easiest way to clean this up be?  Is there an easy way to bulk delete these issues/epics?
I read some other posts and the overwhelming response was "issues should not be deleted"...but these are not issues that are actually going to be used for this project.  Just random testers.  No issues are intended to be deleted once the project is live.

Thank you!

Phill Fox

Hi @kdarlow 

You are absolutely correct that the "normal" advice is not to delete anything so that you retain the full history. But as you described these are not normal epics/issues.

So

Step 1. Check your backup process is working! Deleting issues is a permanent action and the only way to restore is to retrieve from a backup.

Step 2. Make sure that you have the permission to delete in the appropriate permission schemes. I would suggest limiting this to yourself (or at least those you trust not to delete by mistake). 

Step 3. Write some JQL to identify your list of epics/issues to be deleted (you may do this several times)

Step 4. Use bulk tool operation selecting delete

Make sure you carefully check the list of issues/epics that will be deleted as there is no easy way back to restore other than rolling back to your last backup. (I know I am labouring this point but it is a common failing.)