How do I move a case from Resolved back to the Assigned column?

[Rob Peutrell]

I wrongly moved a case from Resolved to Assigned. It needs to be put back into the Assigned list. It won't drag and drop. The only option seems to be to reopen it as a new case. Is that the only way of doing it?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Welcome to the Community!

It sounds like your workflow does not have a transition that goes from the status your issue is in, back to a status that is in the assigned column.  Or, if it does, then there is a condition on it that stops you using it.

Most Jira systems are set up to allow non-admin users see the workflow diagram, so check that first - open up the full view of the issue and look near resolution and status for "view workflow diagram".

Then you'll need to talk to your administrators to get one added, or find out what the condition is and work through that.

[Rob Peutrell]

thanks. i am now one of the admins :) but much to learn. In this instance, I returned the case to the start - in effect, reopening it - and from there moved it back into the assigned column. Seemed to work ok - although thinkng about it, I need to check whether the caseworker has lost access. My question very simply is: why can't you drag and drop - or move back using the dropdown option - from the completed back to the assigned column? If I understand you rightly, the admin(s). should be able to do this.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Ok, there's two things in here.

1. An admin has the power to administrate, not "do everything".  Even if they could, the way workflows work (the bit below) still wouldn't let an admin do it! 

As an extreme example, I worked for a bank with around 7,000 active Jira projects.  As the Jira admin, I could reconfigure every aspect of any of those projects.  But when I ran a search for "show me everything", I only got issues from the "Atlassian admins" and "Holiday booking" projects.   I didn't need to see any of the other projects to do my job, and they defaulted to hiding them.  As an admin, of course, I could give myself access, but I just didn't need the sheer volume of noise!

2.  Workflows matter.  When you are dragging issues from column to column, you are actually triggering transitions - the arrows in the workflow diagrams.  They change the status of the issue from one place to another (and because columns are collections of one or more status, the board shows this as a change of column).

A board cannot trigger a transition that is not there.

The reason you can't go from Completed to Assigned is that there are no transitions in the workflow from the current status (that is in the Completed column) to any status in the Assigned column.

I do not know where you are from, so I don't know how this analogy might resonate.  I live in the UK, which has a lot of roads that were never designed for modern cars.  We have a lot of towns and cities with "one way" roads.  You can drive from my house to my local pub in 1 minute, but to get home, you have to drive up to the old hospital, then up the road to the park, then over to the right past the flats, and finally back down my road.

The analogy here is the one-way roads are all transitions.  To transition to the pub, I can do it in one step.  But there's no direct transition back home, I have to go back via several other transitions to other places.

(Note - a transition may actually be there.  But it may be controlled - my one-way street also has a sign on it saying "no vehicles over a certain size".  That's the analogy for Jira's workflow "conditions")

[Rob Peutrell]

Thanks. Certainly no desire to do everything although our rather modest set up is probably less noisy than the case you described :) Get the analogy: - no direct route back. What if you'd walked to the pub? 

However - re. last paragraph: Are you saying that a direct transition from Completed to Assigned 'may actually be there'? I wouldn't imagine that an error like mine - shifting from Assigned to Completed prematurely - was that uncommon. But maybe the only option is to shunt the file back to start and then re-assign.

Cheers :)