Cloning an epic & its stories and subtasks

[lisa]

Hi everyone! 

In our workflow we have some epics which usually are set up in the same structure, meaning having the same user stories & subtasks.

My question

In order to save time to create future epics like described above, I was wondering if there is a way in Jira to clone an epic and with that also clone its user stories & tasks?

What I already tried

I already tried to clone user stories and its subtasks which works like a charm. But when I try and clone an epic it only copies the epic and nothing which is part of the epic (user stories and its subtasks. Any ideas? 

[Nishanth Thimmareddy (Appfire) · Accepted solution]

Hi @lisa

You can use Clone Plus for Jira Cloud to clone an epic, its issues, and their subtasks with estimates also. 

I'm the product manager for the app.

If you have questions or feedback about Clone Plus for Jira, please get in touch with us directly.

Regards,

Nishanth T

[lisa]

• So there is no way within Jira itself? 
• Would then everybody need the app?
• is it available for both windows & mac?
• Does it cost money?

[Nishanth Thimmareddy (Appfire)]

Thanks for asking these questions!

Here are the answers:

• No, there is no way to do this out of the box in Jira
• Once your Jira administrator installs Clone Plus for Jira app in your Jira cloud instance, all the capabilities are available for all users
• Yes, it is a cloud app and is available to both windows & mac users
• Yes, you can see the pricing for different tiers here

Please let me know if you have any more questions, I’d be happy to help.

Regards,
Nishanth T

[Eduardo Godinez]

You guys should create a clone app for Align!

[Amanda Culver]

Jira Cloud

If you're an admin (or have loose permissions)
Create a UTF8 (CSV) file with the structure and import it 

OR ...

More Clunky - but doable if you're not an admin

• Create (template) Stories with sub-tasks (which will clone when you clone the stories)
• Clone the Stories (which will also clone the sub-tasks)
  

• Link the sub-tasks to the Stories
  (meaning you now have the parent child & links set up for the sub-tasks)
• Create the Epic
• Link/Epic Link all cloned Stories to the Epic
  Now you have the Epic > Story > Sub-task hierarchy 
• Bulk Move the sub-tasks to tasks (this will drop the parent/child relationship)
  

  parent in (XX-111,XX-222)

• Update the Summaries
• Update the Epic Link for all of the Tasks 
  
  I warned you it was convoluted, but it is doable without buying a whole plugin. 

[Sean Saxon]

While there is no way to Clone an Epic, stories/tasks, sub-tasks, out of the box, you can create automations to do that.  

More info: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Marketplace-Apps-Integrations/Automation-for-JIra-cloning-an-epic-and-stories-how-to-copy-same/qaq-p/1213564

Instead of selecting CLONE, you would select Actions - FROM AUTOMATION

[Antoine _Klee Group_]

Hey @Sean Saxon, what's your full automation to perform the cloning part to the subtask level? I managed to do it until the task level but since we can't loop (branch) in a loop, how did you manage to do it?

[Ibrahim Farhan]

Hallo, 

There is a nice App for Cloning Epic with selected issues in Epic, their sub-tasks and linked issues. 

it offers also the ability to change some values and adding pre/postfixes. 

Security options to choose who can use this function and in which projects.

Server, DC and Cloud. Epic Clone 

[Karen Feldman]

I have this same issue. I'm confused why selecting to include child issues is an option when it does not clone the child issues? 

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

Hello @lisa,

Our Marketplace app Deep Clone for Jira is also able to clone Epics along with stories and subtasks.

If you have questions or feedback, don't hestitate to contact our support.

[lisa]

How much is your app?

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

You can find more information about pricing here.