How to bulk update field values in sub-tasks?

Question

I am facing an issue while trying to update customer fields in sub-tasks.

Unexpected failure occurred. Importer will stop immediately. Data may be in an unstable state: Failed to remove subtasks [INV-708] parents. A parent of a subtask cannot be removed.

I have tried the approach used by  @Greg Newman mentioned here - https://arc.net/l/quote/hpqqndff and added the external issue id for the parent under the "Parent" column while mapping and have also tried using Parent Key under the "Parent" column, but failed every time with the same error.

This is the sample CSV that I am using:

Issue key Issue id Summary Parent Issue Type Custom field (Serial Number)
INV-708 241248 sampleSummary 243681 Inventory ABCD

Can you help me out here? This would be a regular process that we would be doing and need to update filed values in sub-tasks from csv.

Walter Buggenhout · Accepted Answer

Hi @shantanuw and welcome to the Community!

There is something odd in your scenario. You say you want to update field values in subtasks, which leads me to assume this is about already existing sub-tasks in Jira. Your mention that this is something you would see as a regular, recurring process even strengthens that assumption.

If that is true, just don't update the parent field and leave it out of your field mapping when you try to perform the update. The parent of a sub-task is the issue the sub-task is a child of, and - as the message is rightfully saying - subtasks cannot exist in Jira without a parent. If you are trying to update fields of existing issues, you should be able to only include and map those fields you are trying to update and leave anything else aside.

Hope this helps!