User with permissions still cannot assign issue

[Johnathon Vasiliadis]

We have several users that cannot update the Assignee field. This has happened somewhat recently, and I do not know of any changes that have been made. The permission helper looks fine, but the user still receives "Assignee cannot be edited" when trying to assign issues. Below is one example of the permission helper screen:

I have also tried clearing cache, different browsers etc. and that did not help.

It seems that users that are explicitly defined in the People settings of the project, (company managed) have retained their rights, but not others. 

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Johnathon Vasiliadis 

Have you checked the workflow for this issue type in this project to see if a Workflow Property has been applied to the Status that this issue is in, limiting who can change the Assignee field when the issue is in that Status?

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/use-workflow-properties/

[Johnathon Vasiliadis]

Thank you for the reply, I have checked just now and there are no workflow properties set on the statuses; they all read "There are currently no defined properties."

[Trudy Claspill]

When using the Permissions Helper there may be a link at the bottom to show failed conditions. Did your results include that link? Were there any relevant failed conditions?

Are the users able to edit other fields in the issue?

[Johnathon Vasiliadis]

Yes it is hard to tell because the screenshot is all white, but there were no failed conditions for this user.

Editing other fields is restricted by design, so the check for "Edit Issue" fails in this scenario. 

[Trudy Claspill]

Do users that have the Edit Issue permission also have permission to Assign Issues? And does it work for them?

Are there any users that have the Assign Issue permission but not the Edit Issue permission that are able to assign issues?

I haven't had a chance to test it, but my theory is that the Edit Issue permission is required to support the Assign Issue permission.

[Johnathon Vasiliadis]

I mean, yes... If I put the user into a group that also has Edit permissions, they can certainly assign and edit the whole issue. 

As for any users with Assign but not Edit and can assign, I have tested with a handful of account and the results are consistent. 

This begs the question, why is "Assign" a separate permission then? Also, this was functioning normally a couple weeks ago. 

[Trudy Claspill]

This begs the question, why is "Assign" a separate permission then?

Just guessing, but I would say that there was a need to allow users to edit information fields in issues but not allow them to decide who would be Assigned to an issue.

As to the statement that having only Assign Issues without Edit Issues previously allowed users to in fact Assign Issues, I can't either prove or disprove that. It is not a scenario that I have tested recently enough to recall the results.

Since you are on a Standard subscription plan, you might consider opening a support case with Atlassian to see if they can track down a date when the functionality might have changed.

https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

Or, you could review the weekly release notes posts to see if any of them talk about such a change since the last date where you believe it worked.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/blog/2023

It would be great if you can post back here any information you learn about a change in this functionality.

[Trudy Claspill]

@Johnathon Vasiliadis 

I just found that somebody posted an answer on another post saying that they also believe having only the Assign Issue permission without the Edit Issue permission allowed users to Assign the issues, and that it has now changed.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Assignee-can-t-be-edited-in-edit-mode/qaq-p/2355784

The poster of the Answer there says that Atlassian Support is trying to tell them that the Edit Issue permission has also been required for a long time.

[Johnathon Vasiliadis]

Ah thanks for the reference, at least I can see another similar case now, I couldn't find anything before I had posted!

At this point I've enabled a workaround just giving certain users Edit permissions. I hope Atlassian recognizes and fixes this issue, though.

[Trudy Claspill]

Another Community Leader (thanks @Esther Strom ) has confirmed that in their Jira Cloud environment it currently works as you expect; a user that has Assign Issue but not Edit Issues is able to change the Assignee field. They note that they have Release Tracks enabled for their system, so they may not have received all the updates you have gotten on your system.

[Trudy Claspill]

Please let us know what you learn from Atlassian Support, if you opened a support case.

[Michele Mele]

I was on the phone with tech support for multiple hours and we were able to identify the problem. They fixed all Jira Cloud users

[Johnathon Vasiliadis]

@Michele Mele Can you share what the problem was? Or the fix?

[Michele Mele]

I would but I didn't do anything. they fixed them by changing something on their servers. probably some bug in the release of updates