Is it possible to import data from Excel and update current issues isntead of creating new ones?

Question

I have a spreadsheet that is synced to Jira via the Microsoft plugin. We want to add two columns (custom fields both of which I have already created within our instance) and have users update those columns with their own data. When importing back into Jira, I want these existing issues to have those two fields updated and not create an entirely new issue. Is this possible?

Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira · Answer

Hi @Gaia Sargent,

if you are open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, you may want to have a look at the app that my team and I are working on, JXL for Jira.

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline-editing, sorting, and filtering by all your issue fields, much like you’d do in e.g. Excel or Google Sheets. You can also bulk edit your issue fields using copy/paste. This works within JXL, but also between JXL and pretty much any other app, including e.g. Excel or Google Sheets.

This is how it looks in action:

(I'm using the assignee here, but it would work the same for any other field(s), too.)

So what you could do is to copy over the data from Excel as shown above, or perhaps do the changes directly in JXL - it really "feels" just like Excel.

Any questions just let me know,

Best,

Hannes

Cristian0791 · Answer

Hi Gaia,

Jira offers two distinct features for importing issues from CSV files. However, one of these features is restricted to Jira administrators, and this specific External System Importer has capabilities that the other importer lacks and for this you will need to have Jira Admin/ Site admin role.

Please see the below article for more details:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Update-existing-issue-via-import/qaq-p/1291133#:~:text=To%20update%20existing%20issues,%20your%20CSV%20file%20needs%20to%20contain

Hope this helps.

Alex Ortiz_jolj6x · Answer

@Gaia Sargent I'm not 100% certain that the sync will add data, but you should be able to save your excel file as a CSV.

As long as you have the issue key + Summary + your columns with the updated values, Jira will update your issues instead "importing". You still go through the importer, so it feel unintuitive, but as soon as you map your issue key and summary, the UI will change on you.

Try it out!