Search for issues with empty custom field is incomplete

[Marcel Diskowski]

When I search for issues of a certain type and status, I can see 6 issues where an Assets object custom field is empty. However, when I add

<CustomField> IS EMPTY

to the JQL, I can now only see 4 of the 6 issues.

[Kris Dewachter · Accepted solution]

Hi @Marcel Diskowski ,

Welcome to the Community.

It's possible that the custom field for the 2 missing issues has some invisible value, or had a value at some point, and that value has since been deleted.

Do these 2 issues show up when you use ?

"CustomField" is not EMPTY

Best regards,

Kris

[Marcel Diskowski]

Hey Kris,

thanks for the suggestion! No, when I use IS NOT EMPTY, I only see the issues which actually have a value. I've also examined the Activity tab, and neither of them ever had a value for the custom field.

Kind regards,

Marcel

[Kris Dewachter]

Hi @Marcel Diskowski ,

What type of Asset custom field is it (text, select list, object, ...) ? Can you share the configuration ?

The 6 tickets are all part of the same project / issue type ?

Best regards,

Kris

[Marcel Diskowski]

• The custom field is an Assets object, so when a value is specified, it shows that objects.
• My query includes 5 issue types (using type IN (...)) and the missing issues are both of a type that does show for other issues.
• The project is common across all issues. I've now also tried adding the project to the query, but to no avail.
• Even when I only query for one of the 5 issue types and the empty custom field, the issues are still missing.
• I've verified that this custom field is present on at least one screen of all the queried issue types.

[Kris Dewachter]

Hi @Marcel Diskowski ,

I found this older community post describing the same issue that you are experiencing . https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/JQL-filter-for-quot-custom-field-is-not-EMPTY-quot-returns-some/qaq-p/1271859

It was reported as a bug in tickets

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-67435
• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRASERVER-71042

In the JRASERVER ticket, people are mentioning a global reindex to solve the issue.

Maybe you can also have a look at the workaround that mentions using a saved filter.

Best regards,

Kris

[Marcel Diskowski]

Re-indexing indeed looks like a good approach. However, I'll have to schedule it for the affected instance due to performance and availability considerations. I'll get back to you on this.

[Marcel Diskowski]

I was finally able to schedule and complete a full re-index on our productive Jira instance and it indeed solved the problem. I did queries with and without the IS EMPTY and manually verified that it now returns the correct results.