Did Atlassian change the process for reusing a Project Key in Cloud?

[Benjamin Lovelace]

There seems to be updated or conflicting information on reusing a project key in Jira Cloud.

Some posts and documentation give me the impression that a Jira Cloud admin would have to contact Atlassian to request project information be deleted from "the database" before a project key could be reused.

How do I delete or reuse the project key?

"...it [Jira] will still prevent you from using a key that existed before, even if you change the project key or even delete the original project.  It needs a record of removed projects for the history search, so it stops you creating projects with keys that have existed before."

"The only workaround is to go into the database and remove the old project key from the table it is stored in..."

 - Nic Brough [Adaptavist] COMMUNITY CHAMPION Aug 25, 2016

However, a current Atlassian Cloud support document (Last modified on May 31, 2018), seems to indicate that an old project key will "be available" if the original project is deleted.

Editing a project's details

"The old project key will only be available if you delete the project it was previously associated with.

- Atlassian

The statement from the Atlassian Cloud support document would lead me to believe that I could reuse a project key by simply deleting the project . . . unless:

• the statement "if you delete the project" includes more than the Jira admin deleting the project from the Admin Projects page.
• the statement "be available" doesn't mean readily usable; it just means it's possible to reuse it, but additional actions are required.

Any clarification on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Harry Chan · Accepted solution]

Are you looking at renaming the actual field or an option within a select or multi-select list?

1. Everything will get updated.

2. Everything should work the same. Everything will be updated. However, within the database everything references the ID and not the actual label/name that you give it. There won't be THAT many updates.

[KP11]

1. Both the field and also an option within multi select. Some fields wil be name only othets just multi select option.

[Harry Chan]

They are all aliased. The references are in IDs. However, there will be some re-indexing going on. You *may* also need a manual reindex, but it's usually fine.

[darylchuah]

Any modification included renaming the Custom Fields will require to perform reindexing in order for JIRA to update the latest indexing files into the database.

Reference from this documentation: Re-Indexing after Major Configuration Changes

[KP11]

Thanks. There was no prompt warning from JIRA that re-index was required. Usually when we enter the Admin reindex screent it is highlighted