Import a project from a separate instance that was previously in this instance

Question

Hard to fit the question in the Question slot!

Situation:

There were several projects in our Jira instance (call this the main instance) that got exported and run in a separate Jira instance (call this the side instance) for a couple of months. Now, we need to bring those projects back into the original Jira instance.

I assume that we need to do the Cloud-to-Cloud option, but I would love to verify that and to confirm what will happen exactly.

Will the other unrelated Jira projects in the main instance be unaffected?

Will the projects that are imported overwrite the original versions of those projects that haven't been touched since the export? Or will they be duplicates?

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

When using the Copy Data feature to create a plan to copy data, after selecting what to copy the plan is validated. Among the validation steps is a check to see if the project already exists in the destination. This is what the check reveals.

So, it will not allow you to proceed with executing the plan if there is a destination project with the same key.

jstephens-hshsl · Answer

Hi Trudy, Thanks for the reply!

Yes, I reviewed that info, and it does imply to me that the import would work the way we need it to, but it doesn't exactly say that as clearly as I'd like. As in, saying that you can't import projects with the same key implies that the existing projects with those keys will remain and be in conflict, which implies that the existing content is not affected by the import.

I know in the standard Import Jira Cloud option for importing content, it says (in Bold):

Importing your data file will overwrite all data

So, I just want to triple check that this cloud-to-cloud option doesn't overwrite all data!

Trudy P Claspill · Answer

Hello @jstephens-hshsl

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

What method are you planning to use to migrate the data? There is a native function for copying data from one cloud site to another.

Have you reviewed the material available here?

https://support.atlassian.com/organization-administration/docs/copy-product-data/

One of the statements there (in the child page about Jira) is that the process can't copy a project if the destination system has a project that uses the same key. You will have to delete the projects from the original (now destination) system before copying the back from the second system.