Can I move tasks between projects, and retain the custom field value?

McKenna Hogan

Hello, 

I have two team-managed software-development style projects. The issues have some custom fields that I have created.  I have configured these custom fields the same way between these two projects, but when I move an issue from one project to another, the values in the custom fields aren't being retained, only the values in the fields created by jira.

Are fields created by jira the only fields that can be carried from one project to another when moving an issue? Is there a way to get these custom fields to also carry over without manually inputting them in the moving process?

Sarp Egemen

Hi @McKenna Hogan 

In team-managed projects, custom fields exist at the project level. Even if you configure two identical custom fields with the same names, they will have different IDs in the background.

When you move an issue from one team-managed project to another, the system recognizes that the custom field does not exist in the new project. It prompts you to decide what you want to do (you might miss this screen if you click "Next" multiple times quickly), and you can choose new values there.

If you don't select a value (none), the values will not be transferred, and what appears empty is actually a different custom field with a different ID. This can lead to confusion, as you might think they are the same since you configured them with the same name and type.

To avoid this, you can create global custom fields by going to Issues > Custom fields, and then add them to the project by navigating to Project settings > Issue Types.