Advance the Issue #

Question

Is there a way to advance the JIRA issue # so that the next issue # is some user defined # instead of system defaulted in at whatever the next # happens to be for the project?  For example, if my next JIRA # will be JIT-37, is there any way I can have the next # start at JIT-1001 instead?  I want issues to start at a new point in time so that the #s don't conflict with our legacy ticket system.  Thanks.

Ivan Tovbin · Accepted Answer

No, you can't do that from the UI. This can only be achieved by directly editing some DB entries and any direct tampering with the DB is NOT RECOMMENDED unless you know exactly what you are doing.

With that in mind, if you absolutely have to change your starting issue key number I'd do it in a brand new project. Check out this KB artictle for directions. And naturally, before you start fiddling with your DB make sure you do all the neccessary backups first!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted Answer

Three options

* Coding or scripting - there's a lot of options if you're happy with that approach, but they're not worth exploring if you are happy with something a bit more ephemeral
* Usually, I will tell people to never touch a Jira database.  This is one of the few exceptions, because it is simple enough that it is easy and won't break things.  You absolutely have to stop Jira before running the SQL, because you are amending a field it always caches, so it will break if you don't have it offline.  But once stopped, look at the "projects" table for the pcounter field - amend that upwards for the JIT project, and restart Jira.  (Caveat - for JIT-1001 being the next number, I cannot remember if you should set pcounter to 1000 or 1001 - test it in test first!)
* The blunt option - create a CSV file with the right number of lines in it, and import it into the project.  For JIT-37 to JIT-1000 (so the next one is 1001), you'll need 963 lines.  When it's complete, use bulk edit to delete them.

Note that only method 3 really works on Cloud - 2 fails because you have no db access, and I'm not sure the scripting/coding option would do it by anything other than automating method 3 some other way.