How to remove Epic from the select list of Epic link?

[Clemens Luebbers]

I created an Epic, created stories related to it. Now the sprint is done. All stories have status closed and Epic has Epic status "Done" and also workflow status closed (Resolution = Done). Epic is no more visible on planning view in the board.

However, if I create a new story and want to select an Epic in field Epic link, the old Epic can still be selected. How do I get rid of the Epic in the select list of Epic link?

I have seen this: 
https://answers.atlassian.com/questions/253432

and also this: https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/AGILE/Completing+an+Epic

but that did not solve my problem.

Any ideas?

[Philippe Aubin · Accepted solution]

The only solution i see is to delete the Epic to stop seeing it in your autocomplete. The Epic Link field does not take see the status of the Epic, it just show all. If you want to keep your Issue you could export them in .csv and keep them in an external repository.   

[Clemens Luebbers]

Hi Philippe, thanks - the export could be a workaround. I will wait, if other solutions are proposed, before accepting this answer. Regards Clemens

[Clemens Luebbers]

Hi Philippe, there was no other approach proposed. So the proposal of exporting and deletion of epics is probably the only currently available approach - what I feel as very unsatisfactory, but that is subject to Atlassian. Thanks for your response. Regards Clemens

[Eric Smith]

I'm having a similar issue.  Honestly, it should be an option to disallow linking of tasks to Epics that are in a closed status.  This seems simple...

[Ingo Mohr]

+1. Closed epics should not show up in the drop down list of available epics in the issue editor. There should at least be an option for this. Didn't find one in JIRA 7, too.

[Johnny Andersen]

+1 I see no reason for the "remove all papertrails" suggestion to be accepted as the solution here.

[Peter Gilchrist]

+1 there are a few solutions that involve purging important historical data from an integrated system and then dumping to a .csv file (which is never never land).

[Kristy Lapidus]

+1

[Felix Diaz]

1-) Go to Issues.
2-) Filter the by Type: "Stories" and Creator: "yourUSER". (look for the set of testcases you are trying to remove).
3-) Click on Tools   (It is on the top and right side).
4-) Select All XXX issue(s).
5-) Check the testcases that you are willing to remove from the EPIC.
6-) Click Next
7-) Cherck the "Edit Issues" radio button.
8-) Click Next
9-) Check "Change Epic Link" and leave the Dropdown empty (DO NOT WRITE OR SELECT ANYTHING HERE)
10-) Clcik Next
11-)Confirm.

[Clemens Luebbers]

Hi Felix, sorry for late response, but year end is holiday time ... I understand your approach that this will remove the Epic link from existing tickets (issue type "Story" or in my case "Task"). My problem is different: The Epic xyz and all associated stories are solved / done. However, if I create any new Story (nothing to do with epic "xyz") and want to select the appropriate epic, the epic "xyz" is still in the list of selectable epics. Over years the list will become very big, and mis-selections will happen more often. Philippe proposed to delete the epic and your proposal to remove the links from the stories to the epic would be in line with that approach. However, in that case I would lose the correct history of the development (as the epic part would be missing). Export as .csv would be a kind of workaround to limit this lost. But as I got no other approach, it is probably the only available approach currently. Thanks and regards Clemens

[Peter Gilchrist]

Clemens I am in the same predicament; users are already annoyed and I only have about 15 epics. Why a status is not linked with the appearance in the picklist is quite prohibitive. I am hoping in Atlassian Cloud I will be able to manage this at some point.

[eric johnson]

Go to Issues 
write JQL: 
Project = xyx and type = "Test Case" and "Epic Link" is not Empty and "Epic Link" = xyz 
Then go to Tools Choose Issues, Choose Operation - Edit Issue, Operation Details - Click Change Epic Link - Leave blank , Confirmation and Acknowledge 

This filter/query has optional components such as Epic Link = to be specific in the query if you want to show all Epic Links leave the last and off.

This is great for when the planning team sees too many test cases associated with a huge Epic which generates a large number of Test Cases it makes the Issues in Epic very hard to read.