Can't Move Subtask! Throws Error.

Question

When I try to move a subtask I get this error:

Error while performing bulk operation on issues. Please refer to Jira logs for more details.

What I prefer would be to simply drag and drop the task from one epic to another. What I'm getting is a multi-step UX that fails to perform a simple task, disrupting a fundamental step in project management. The only solution that comes to mind is to create a new subtask and copy the details.

Is there a fix?

Thanks.

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Answer

Sub-tasks are not directly part of Epics, they are a part of their parent issue, and hence you can not add an epic link to them when you edit them.  Sub-tasks infer "part of Epic" from their parent issue being part of an Epic.

To make them part of an epic, you have to promote them to the issue level, making them separate items that are not part of their parent issue.

There's a bug in Jira that means it does not tell you this when you try to give sub-tasks an epic link.

IABLE · Answer

Thanks for the reply!

I am using the timelines as the top level container to manage the categories of tasks in our project.

The project type is “Kanban”. So I have a board and a timeline.

When I click on a timeline, I see “Child Issues”. When I click on a Child Issue, I see more Child Issues, but I see these are labelled as “Subtasks”.

I was probably trying to move a sub-task from one Epic to another and I think that when the move failed per my OP, the subtask was removed from the Epic and placed directly in the Board. At that point I discovered that I could change the Epic by clicking on the name of the Epic on the card in the Board. Optionally, if I want to make that change take a little longer, I can click on the ellipsis and  choose “change parent”.

That is all I wanted to accomplish – move a subtask to a different Epic as quickly as possible. This is just project management, a procedure like that should not take much longer than the thought to do it.

FWIW, I am coming from Notion, where all of this is at least an order of magnitude easier to manage.

I’m only using Jira because my devs wanted the Bitbucket integration – which I have recognized is helpful.

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @IABLE

With what type of project are you working? You can get that information from the Type column on the View All Projects page under the Projects menu.

Can you clarify if the type of issue you are trying to move is actually a Sub-task issue type, or is it a standard issue type? "Sub-task" has a specific meaning in Jira, and Sub-task are not typically created under Epic type issues.

Exactly what steps are you executing to move the issue? There are multiple ways to execute the move process, and it looks a bit different when you move a Sub-task versus a standard level issue  Can you provide screen images to illustrate those steps?