Old Jira project key reference still exists after creating new project and moving issues

Question

We had issues linked with our DVCS commits incorrectly. there were some old irrelevant commits using JIRA issue references which didn't exist and as new issues with those keys get created the old commits were linked. I followed Pawel's answer from https://community.atlassian.com/t5/JIRA-questions/Can-not-create-jira-project-with-old-edited-project-key/qaq-p/77187

But moved issues rather than export/import. The old issue references via URL still exist even if the old and temporary projects don't. so here's what happened:

1) project with key DS exists

2) project key renamed DSUI in the hopes to break commit links

3) find pawel's answer and create an temp project with key DST

4) move issues from DSUI->DST

5) delete DSUI project

6) Create new project DSUI and move issues from DST->DSUI

7) delete DST project

At this point a DS issue url gets redirected to DSUI.

AFter this issues are still being referenced using DS, DST and DSUI keys. I checked `project_key` table in DB and only the DSUI key exists. However a change history exists in `changeitem` table. the changeitem table does NOT have a row for DS key (since that proj was deleted) but does have rows for rest of the project and key changes. Is this table used for redirection of old issue URLs?

Does the project and issue key change rows need to be cleared out from this table to completely break old references?

Italo _Modus Create_ · Answer

Thanks for sharing this @Dario B ! Old thread but it answers the reason the table "project_key" was empty after an export/import using the XML approach.

Dario B · Answer

This is something that for some reason is well documented for JIRA Server but not for Cloud:

- https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver075/editing-a-project-key-935391076.html

As written in there, another possible workaround (export and re-import the issues):

If you export a renamed project, then import it, it will have the updated project key, i.e. the original project key will not be retained. In fact, all historical keys for that project will be removed. There is a workaround for this that involves changing data directly in your database, see this Answers post.

I have opened the below request to have this information available for JIRA Cloud as well:

- https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-67915

I hope this helps.

Atharva Inamdar · Answer

That is a great pointer! I feel like there are so many different places where "old" key is mapped now.

Thanks! I'll give this a try out fo business hours.