How to track comment history in Jira

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Has it ever happened to you that someone deleted or updated your comment in Jira and you could not find it? Comments allow team members to discuss issues, provide updates, and share important information directly within the issue itself. You can tag someone, and they will receive your comment via email, too. It’s really convenient, however tracking deleted or updated comments might be challenging.

If you are looking for deleted comments, check How to get deleted comments in Jira?

Here, we’ll focus on updates.

Is it possible to see comments' changes in Jira?

Jira has a great option for tracking issue changes. You can find it in the History section when opening each issue. However, it has a significant gap when it comes to tracking comment updates. If someone updates a comment, there is no trail for this update. 

You can only see that comment was edited. But what was the update? Who made it and when?

An alternative option that might help to get comment updates is Jira automation. There is a specific condition “Issue comment edited” and you can try some smart values like {{comment.body}} and {{comment.latest.body}} and send those to the email.

Another way to get this info, you might want to check apps from Atlassian Marketplace that provide this functionality. Issue History for Jira is one of them and it has the most comprehensive reports if we are speaking about tracking past issue changes. You can choose the format you need and see changes for one issue/multiple issues in one place, updates made to the specific field, table view, or gadget.  

Comment updates for a single task

If you need to check the comment history for some specific task, it’s convenient to do it from the Activity section where you can open Issue History for Jira. You have to activate the comment tracking option to start saving changes in comments. Additionally, by opening the field filter and selecting the Comment, you can display only changes for this specific field.

Comment updates for multiple issues

It’s also possible to review the comments section and its history for all issues in your project or for issues selected based on specific criteria. Here, we have an example for the Marketing project with comments updated by a specified person yesterday.

You can select any filters you need. Learn how to activate this option in the documentation.

If you haven’t worked with Issue History for Jira and would like to check it out, get a free 30-day trial on the Marketplace.

Tracking comment history on the Jira dashboard

If you prefer to work with the Jira dashboard, you can also see all comments’ changes using the Activities gadget. 

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Takeaway

Tracking comment history in Jira is essential for maintaining accountability, providing context, and enhancing collaboration within your team. It’s especially important for companies that need to comply with specific regulatory requirements or for audit purposes. Do you find this functionality required for your teamwork and project management?