Cloning sub-tasks of Sub-tasks

Question

I have an Epic with Stories as Sub-tasks, and these Stories have sub-tasks too.

When I clone the Epic (including sub-tasks) , I expected that my Stories AND their sub-tasks would be cloned as well. But my Story sub-tasks have not be cloned. This is very dis-appointing because it blocks my use case here.

Is there a configuration that allows these recursive sub-task cloning, or is it a bug/missing feature?

Luka Hummel - codefortynine · Answer

Hi @Ian Burniston and welcome to the community!

It sounds like you're trying to clone an Epic that contains Stories which themselves contain sub-tasks — essentially a three-level issue hierarchy. The standard Jira cloning feature unfortunately does not support cloning a complex hierarchy like this, which can indeed be limiting for more complex project structures.

Our app Deep Clone for Jira offers a powerful solution for exactly this use case. With its Epic/Tree Clone feature, you can:

* Clone an entire Epic along with all associated issues — including multiple hierarchy levels like Stories and their sub-tasks.
* Preserve issue links, attachments, comments, and even issue status and custom field values.
* Customize your clone using the field editor or automate the process with post functions.

This makes Deep Clone an excellent choice for replicating complex issue trees such as template Epics or entire project structures. You can even bulk clone large numbers of issues or clone whole projects if needed.

Bogna Krystian_Deviniti_ · Answer

Hi @Ian Burniston

I've found this article on Atlassian Support