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The mysterious "Category" field at the issue level

Charles PARNOT

I was hoping to use the "Group by: Category" feature in a project in Jira work management.

By default, when you use that option in the List view, all the issues are 'Uncategorized'.

So I thought I needed to have a 'Category' field for the issues. And indeed, there is one such field in the default set of fields, which is apparently built-in, and provided by Jira. I added the field to my 'Task' issue type.

However, I can't use the field in any useful manner, as it behaves like a list-of-choice field, but without any choices. When I edit an issue and try to set the value for 'Category', it stays desperately empty. How can I add a value in the category field?

Note that I am NOT asking about about project categories, which really appear to be a completely different feature.

Accepted answers

Charles PARNOT

The answer has been given within a thread, not as a root comment, so I cannot mark it as Accepted directly, but here is a link to the answer from @Clayton Correia :

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Management/Re-Re-The-mysterious-quot-Category-quot-field-at-the-issue-level/qaq-p/2100107/comment-id/111699#M111699

In short, my question has been answered in another discussion and there is now some useful documentation about the use of categories in Jira Work Management:

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-work-management/docs/categorize-items-in-your-list-view

All comments

Joseph Chung Yin

@Charles PARNOT -

Welcome to the community. You will need to access the the CLOG WHEEL symbol (Settings) assuming you have the system admin rights.

From Settings >> Issues >> Custom Fields, you need to locate the "Category" field, then click on the "..." symbol and select the option named "Contexts and default value". From there, you need to create your project specific context for the dropdown list options. NOTE - this can be applied to all of the issue types or just specific issue type(s).

Once it is set, then you will see the options for the field.

Hope this helps.

Best, Joseph Chung Yin

Jira/JSM Functional Lead, Global Infrastructure Applications Team

Viasat Inc.

Walter Buggenhout

Hi @Charles PARNOT,

Even though you say you are not referring to the project categories, the built-in category field IS the list of project categories. If the list of categories is empty, then it is because you don't have any project categories defined.

If you do have another category custom field in your Jira instance, then you'll need to provide options in that field as @Joseph Chung Yin describes.

Charles PARNOT

Thanks a lot for the answer. I'll get admin rights and try this!

Charles PARNOT

Ah, OK, that's good to know... The weird thing, though, is that you can "Group by Category" in the list view of a project, but then if the category value comes from project categories, you then have issues with different project categories, but all within the same project?! I am very new to Jira, and some of the design choices remain puzzling ;-)

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

No, because a project can only be in one category, so if you change it, all the issues in it take on a new category.

James Lester_bpl0jk

@Charles PARNOT I believe our friend Walter is incorrect. The "category" field is a recent addition to Jira Work Management projects. The change log from Jul 18 - Jul 25 includes it. Search for the term "Categorize items in your list" to find the specific entry.

According to the entry, all you have to do is type directly into the category field, and your entry will appear as a list choice from then on. Let me know if this helps.

Thanks

Best,

James

Charles PARNOT

I was able to get into the Settings for the custom fields, but this "Category" field is "LOCKED".

From the other answers I received in this thread, I have a feeling this "Category" field is either a recent addition to Jira Service Management, and/or a feature that's not been really fully developed yet.

It will remain mysterious for now

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

The category field has been there since Jira 4, when JQL arrived. (It is actually older, Jira 3 had it, but JQL made it searchable)

Charles PARNOT

The answer has been given within a thread, not as a root comment, so I cannot mark it as Accepted directly, but here is a link to the answer from @Clayton Correia :

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Service-Management/Re-Re-The-mysterious-quot-Category-quot-field-at-the-issue-level/qaq-p/2100107/comment-id/111699#M111699

In short, my question has been answered in another discussion and there is now some useful documentation about the use of categories in Jira Work Management:

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-work-management/docs/categorize-items-in-your-list-view

Haddon Fisher

I was not a fan of Atlassian slapping a new field into all of your company-managed JWM projects despite it not being configured (or really useful in any way right now). I figured I'd do everyone a favor and just pull it from all of the screens. "Let Atlassian keep monkeying around but let's not impact my users", I thought.

DO NOT REMOVE IT.

There is a bug which results in the wrong field being removed, namely the "Summary" field. Since this field is required to create an issue (system-wide), it results in issue creation being blocked.

Laurentino Lorite

Dear Charles:

I was with the same "problem", and I've fixed this using the following command in advanced JQL search in my Jira Cloud: "... AND labels in ([put your category text here]) ..."

You can use this very same syntax in any JQL, Panel or Project filter, so you can see only issues with an expecific text in "Category" field

Regards

Cinthia Catalani

Thank you so much!

Michael Hart

This field has been bugging me for years!

I'm making a how-to guide to save other people a headache and extra research.

2026 Update

Some of the links above are broken. Here is the correct page:

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/categorize-work-items-in-the-list-view/

Note:

That link no longer goes Jira Work Management, instead, it's under Jira Software. This may or may not matter to some people. It's still relevant to the Categories field for work items from what I can tell.

Here's an archive of the page in the Wayback Machine if you want to see for yourself: Link.
(This is mentioned in the top callout on the updated link above, but I almost missed it!) For some reason, it matters what "kind" of space you have. To check your space:
1. Hover over space
2. Click three dots
3. At the bottom will either be
  1. Business Space (good)
  2. Or, Software Space (bad)

In case the links above breaks (again), here's what you need to know:

To make categories

Go to your space
1. If it's not a business space, it may not work
Click List in the nav bar (Example: Screenshot 1)
1. If Category isn't displayed in your list, add it by clicking the "+" and add it
Click inside one of the work item cells under the Category column
Enter the text of a category you want to make (Example: Screenshot 2)
Choose a color, Add

To make multiple categories

(Continuing) Click inside the category cell and press delete or backspace on your keyboard, or click the x (to the right) of the category name
1. Note: Do not click the trashcan icon!
Type in new category name
Choose a color, Add
Repeat as needed

Applying a category to multiple work items

Open Jira
Search work items
Choose your criteria, or make a JQL query
1. If you have multiple work item types, this may prevent bulk updates. Filter to a specific work item type, if needed
Click the three dots (upper right)
Bulk change work items
Select all (upper left), Next
Click Edit work items, Next
Select the relevant category
Next, Confirm

To delete categories

Go to the relevant space
Open up the List in your nav pane
Click a cell within the Category column
Hover over the category you want to remove
Click the trashcan icon (Example: Screenshot 3)

Screenshot 1

Screenshot 2

Screenshot 3

Yatish Madhav

Thanks @Michael Hart you are a star! I just tried this on a Software project and it worked. I find it very odd that I could not edit the field or the contexts from work item settings > Fields.

Thanks for posting this comment!

Yatish

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