How to Clone an Epic with Tasks and Subtasks

[Nacho García-Robledo]

What I want:

Clone following Epic with following structure of Tasks and Subtasks (inside a Team-Managed Project):

What I have so far: 

Via Automation, I get the Epic Cloned and also the Tasks but I cannot get the subtasks too:

Automation Logic:

[Julien Peyrade _ Elements]

Hello @Nacho García-Robledo 

If you don't mind testing an add-on, Elements Copy & Sync lets you do exactly that.

Full disclosure, I'm the Product Manager of the app.

With our app, you will be able to clone Epics with all their issues, including subtasks, and keep the hierarchy.

It is as easy as clicking on two options, which are explained in our tutorials:

• clone full Epics
• clone issues and subtasks as once

The app is free for 30 days, (and stays free if your instance is under 10 users), so feel free to give it a try, and don't hesitate to tell reach our Support if you have any question.

Kind regards,

Julien

[Nacho García-Robledo]

Thanks @Julien Peyrade _ Elements , unfortunately we are not allowed to bring any add-on which has an impact on cost.

In any case thanks for your time!

[Julien Peyrade _ Elements]

That's perfectly understandable, you're welcome. :)

[Michael Cerantola]

Hi there @Nacho García-Robledo 

I just tried to copy paste what you have and at first I got errors, and then I got a purple status 

Here is my automation.

I would love to see where I potentially went wrong. 

[Nacho García-Robledo]

Hello @Michael Cerantola , could you please expand ("Show more") the details of these fails?

Thanks

[Michael Cerantola]

Thank you @Nacho García-Robledo .

Here's the error. It talks about having an error in the clone issue for the parent not belonging to an appropriate hierarchy 

[Nacho García-Robledo]

I have checked mine again and it works, with the problems I mentioned before. 

The structure of Epic/Task/subtask I have is:

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Nacho García-Robledo 

Please show the rule Audit Log details for an execution of this rule where the subtasks are not cloned.

[Nacho García-Robledo]

Hello @Trudy Claspill , here it is the log file:

as per my understanding I have here 2 problems:

1. The variable is not taking really the key for the subtask as it takes the one for the issue that triggered the point

2. it does not iterate, therefore it will generates only 1 subtastk

[Trudy Claspill]

Between 2 and 3 you are starting a branch to iterate through the child issues of the Epic. The branch clones the child issues.

Between 3 and 4 you have a Condition to check for Subtasks. A Condition is not a Branch, so there is no iterating over the Subtasks in the original child issue that was cloned.

Automation for Jira does not currently support having a Branch within a Branch. So, within the iteration of cloning child issues you cannot add another branch to iterate over the original issue's subtasks and clone them also.

I have not worked out all the details, but I believe you may need a separate rule to clone the subtasks. I'm sure there are other posts in the Atlassian Jira communities on this topic. If I find one that presents the solution, I'll post a link.

[Trudy Claspill]

This post includes an answer where the person does the cloning in two rules. A status change triggers the rule, but you could modify that trigger to something else.

I have not worked through the automation rule myself, so I can't attest that it works as written. If you try to replicate the two rules and run into trouble, post what you have and we can help debug.

[Nacho García-Robledo]

Thanks a lot.

I have copied the automation rules from the post you mentioned and only the first automation works.

The problem is that the second does not get triggered; in principle it should kick in after detecting that a label has changed, but it does not when the label is changed by the first automatism.

If I change it myself manually it works :S

[Trudy Claspill]

On the Rule Details page for the second rule did you check the box that says "Check to allow other rule actions to trigger this rule."

[Erik Reiter]

@Nacho García-Robledo did you get your automation to work, to clone your Epics with Stories and the Stories Subtasks?

I am looking for the same thing, preferably withouth extra cost.

If you succeeded it would be really great to see how you've done it