Change Issue stuck due to 'Excluded Approvers"

Question

Hi there,

I was testing change and added to an approval step the assignee and reporter cannot be the approver.

I created a change and went to Approve it as myself and ended up with a Excluded Approvers error and my name.  Yep all good as I shouldn't be able to approve it.

I go back to the ticket and click Add Approver and that error is still there and I cannot actually add anyone else and I can't see a way to remove the Excluded Approvers view to be able to add another now.

What could be wrong with this?

S.

Jeremias Renner · Answer

I found this workaround in 2025, thank you for sharing @Jehan Bhathena !

Jehan Bhathena · Answer

@Ste404's point is quite valid, there is a very weird behavior here.

in the below image you can see the Excluded Approver filled, I tried to keep it empty but that too didn't work.

To get this to work at my end, I had to empty all the "Exclude Approvers from" -> "Publish Workflow" -> Return to the Ticket. For the change to work, you need to transition the ticket back and forth or to another state, so that when we return to the APPROVAL step the change is reflected.

Ste404 · Answer

The issue just went away for me.  For me it is expected behaviour but the ability to add other approvers was broken.

If you are not expecting people to be excluded, check your workflow approval steps (part two of setting up approval) and see if you have Reporter and Assignee pinged as not able to approve.