Workflow Status Change

[Elif Alverson]

Hello,

Is it possible to change a custom workflow status to a default Jira workflow status (example: opened to open ) without creating new workflows for the existing projects? Like a bulk change or similar. Thank you.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Yes, you can edit the workflow and change the status in use.  You don't even need to do any migration if you just change the status.

[Elif Alverson]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- ,

I am getting this message; 

Statuses can't be removed from active workflows

You can only remove statuses from inactive workflows. To start with this workflow and remove statuses, make a copy of it which will be inactive. You can assign it to the project when you're happy with it.

Learn more about configuring and editing workflows.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Deleting status from a flow is different to changing it.  You can't delete a step from an active workflow because there might be issues currently at that step.  You must migrate them all to a different workflow before deleting a step, otherwise you'd render your issues useless and unmoveable.

You will have to do what it says in the error message - create a new workflow, without the step you don't want any more, and migrate the issues over to it.

[Elif Alverson]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- , 

I am sorry for the confusion. I wanted to get your opinions to see if there is an easy way to change a status of an active workflow from opened to open. It seems like there is no other way but create a new workflow. Thank you.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

No problem, it's the main reason people ask questions!

There are two ways to do that.  There is the "copy workflow and add new status" option as above, and you could rename "Opened" to "Open", assuming you do not already have a status named "Open".

I would recommend the rename, "Open" is a better word than "Opened" for a status, and you would want to keep things consistent if possible.

[Elif Alverson]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- , I tried to rename opened to open , and I received the message of "A status with that name already exists, please enter a different name."

I assume my only option is to create new workflow/s ( since I have multiple ) with the status open. 

Thank you.

.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, someone else has already created a status with the name you want to use.

Whilst Jira allows us to create fields with the same name (it did not use to and I really want to go back to that behaviour), it has never let us duplicate status names.  

You will need to talk to the admins about the status you want to add.

[Joseph Chung Yin · Accepted solution]

@Elif Alverson -

The warning message that you got when trying to change the WF status is because the status that you wanted to change is already in used.

The only option you can do is by copying the existing WF, and then conduct the WF updates.  Once the WF changes are complete, then you will need to access the project's WF configuration schema and just replace the existing WF with the new one.  

Afterward, publish the WF to activate the changes.

Hope this helps.

Best, Joseph Chung Yin

Jira/JSM Functional Lead, Global Technology Applications Team

Viasat Inc.

[Ashish Bijlwan · Accepted solution]

Hi @Elif Alverson 

Yes, we can do it, you can edit the exiting workflow and add the status Open and then move all the transitions that are going to Opened and add it to Open. Once done publish the workflow.

After that have to perform bulk change to all the issues to update the status from Opened to Open.

Thank you,
Ashish

[Elif Alverson]

@Ashish Bijlwan  , thank you for your response. I am getting this message below.

Statuses can't be removed from active workflows

You can only remove statuses from inactive workflows. To start with this workflow and remove statuses, make a copy of it which will be inactive. You can assign it to the project when you're happy with it.

Learn more about configuring and editing workflows.

[Ashish Bijlwan]

We can't delete the status from the active workflow. 

[Joseph Chung Yin]

@Ashish Bijlwan -

As mentioned in this posting threads, if the status is currently associated with issues (i.e. you have issues currently at the OPENED status and you wanted to removed it), then you cannot removed it.  You will need to copy the WF and conduct your changes against the copied WF.  Afterward, you can assigned to copied WF back to your project in question.

NOTE - You also need to make sure that the existing WF is not shared by other projects, because if so, it will impact all the projects that use the shared WF.

Best, Joseph

[Ashish Bijlwan]

@Joseph Chung Yin 

Yes, you are right that is what I mentioned in the thread that we can't delete status from an active workflow.