Ability to adjust field type of an existing field

[Sufian Siddiqi]

Feature Request: I've got a field initially configured as a multi-select field. It's got hundreds of ideas using it. I want to modify it to be a single select with the same options without having to create a new field and have everyone go through and re-tag the options again.

Is this possible now? if not, please consider this a feature request between multi-select and single-select field types.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

No, there's no way to change a field type in Jira (albeit on server you can do some changes with database access, but you can only go single to multi, you can't convert multi to single)

[Tanguy Crusson]

Hi @Sufian Siddiqi - it's not possible today but something that came up a few times so we'll probably look at it in the future. Probably too late for you though...

[Owen Scott]

@Tanguy Crusson this was requested almost a year ago here: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Product-Discovery-questions/Change-field-type/qaq-p/2163220

This is a must-have as we are building out our database for the first time and making changes regularly.

[Tanguy Crusson]

Hi @Owen Scott , to be perfectly honest this is unlikely to be something we prioritize in the medium term. It is not in the top 20 things that came up in the past few months. 

[Erin Mihalik]

@Sufian Siddiqi my recommendation would to be create the new field and then use bulk edit functionality. It will be better than having everyone have to come in and edit their own items.

[Sufian Siddiqi]

@Erin Mihalikthat would not hwlp. There are hundreds of records. I don't have the time to go through and bulk select multiple and match up the options. 

Additionally, if going from multi-select to single-select, I wouldn't want to set the wrong option. 

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm afraid you do not have any option but to "bulk select multiple and match up the options".

You could plough through each option one at a time manually, or you could try to script something with the REST API (maybe with the help of a scripting or automation tool), but you will need to work through the lot.

You are going to need to think about the order too - imagine you have an issue with the multi-select set to "Red, Blue, Green".  Which of these will you set in the new single-select (and hence lose the other two?)

I would run a usage report before starting on this - filter for "<multi-select> is not empty" and run it through some dashboard gadgets to establish a list of what combinations you want to change to what.  (Try the 2 dimensional filter gadget with both axes set to "colour" in my example...)