Custom field - repopulate Edited

[S]

Hi,

I have a custom drop-down field that is initialized with a list.

Now, I want to reinitialize the list but the moment I do it deletes the reference with the existing one 

Is there a way to reinitialize the list without losing reference to existing issues?

For e.g. Dropdown list Select Movies

Movie list

- Soul

- Wonder women

- Love

Now these are linked to issues ....

The moment I reinitialize the list it deletes the references with existing issues. I want to these to remain as is and populate the new ones....

Thanks for the help

[Jack · Accepted solution]

a bit confused. so you have a customer select field that has values say: A, B, C and you wish to edit this list. Do you want to amend the list to be: A, B, C, D, E, F or do you want to rename the existing values: D, E, F. Or am I missing your point altogether?

[S]

Thanks @Jack 

I wish to delete the existing list i.e. Delete A, B and C

And reinitialize with X, Y and Z

But my issues that are mapped with A, B and C. I want them to remain as is...

As of now, if I delete the list, my issues that are mapped with this list gets blank.

For e.g. 

Issue id - 123

Field Movie has value "Soul"

If I delete all the values in list, corresponding mapping value for Movie turns blank.

Let me know if this is not clear, I will try to put a excel and explain

[Jack]

I think you are looking for the Disable option NOT Delete.

When you make changes to the available select list it will in fact impact what is there...

• if you delete a value then any existing issue w/ that value will be cleared
• if you rename a value then any existing issue w/ that value will change to the new name

If you wish to retain the old values you should use the "Disable" option when editing the contexts and default area. This will 'hide' the disabled option from the drop down but retain them on all old issues. 

[S]

Can I get the dropdown list via API and disable it? *I have a big list :(

In the list of API's I don't see anything specific to Custom fields 

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/rest/v3/intro/