How to delete watched issues for another person

Question

I need to remove an employee as a watcher for two different projects and cannot find the right search query that will perform this action. The only search option is current user (). I do have admin rights to make changes.

Basically, I would like to perform a bulk change under each project that the user is listed as a watcher.

John Funk · Answer

Hi @clcali  - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

You could create an automation for Jira rule with a Scheduled trigger.

Then use JQL to identify all of the issues you want to remove the user from.

Then add a new action for Manage Watchers and chose the option to remove the user.

Then save and publish the rule.

Finally, manually run the rule right then. That should remove the user from those issues.

Then you can disable the rule if you want so it doesn't run every day.

clcali · Answer

Hi,

Yes, I used this query (without the parenthesis) and followed steps 1 through 4 and all the issues for this user populated. However, when I went back to check the completed action the user I selected was still listed in the watchers list and my name was removed (could be the "current user" is a default). That being said, I don't think I can remove another individual from the watchers list using the bulk change option - I can only make these changes by going in the issue and selecting the "watchers" icon or from the "more" pull down menu.

Jacob Vu · Answer

Hi @clcali

Have you tried: "watcher = <username>" with username being the user you're searching for?

Jacob