Why does the assignee change when the ticket is edited?

[Liz T]

We are using Jira Work Management, cloud version. Whenever adds comments to the ticket, it automatically changes the assignee to the commenter. Then we have to re-assign to the original assignee. How do I get that to stop?

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Liz,

It sounds like there is some type of automation that has been added and is running. If you look at the history of the issue, who does it say changed the value of the Assignee?

[Liz T]

Hi John,

There are no automations of that nature that I set up on that particular board, I only have a couple turned on and they have nothing to do with the Assignee. The history shows I changed it, which is correct because I saw it happen when I went into the tickets and changed them to "In Progress" for my team members, but it happened through some sort of automation that I didn't set up and can't find. I'm mystified as to where to look or how to get it to stop. It only happens on the Company-managed board, not the Team-managed board. But I can't find a global automation that would do this either.

[John Funk]

Hmm, that's weird for sure. Check the Workflow then to see if there is any Post Function on the transition to that status then. 

[Liz T]

Thanks, I just checked the Workflow. It's the default workflow, with nothing like that.

Something is definitely weird. I guess I'll have people update their own tickets for now. I appreciate you trying to help!

[John Funk]

Is there a Component or something like that getting updated at the same time? 

[Liz T]

We don't have Components, or really anything extra set-up. This board is super basic. The only thing I added to it was Epics and a couple extra fields. Everything else is default. That's why this is so odd.

[John Funk]

I would try another test. And immediately when it happens in the test, go to Global Automation list of rules and click on the Audit Log at the top of the full list. And then see if any rules fired in that last few seconds/minute. 

[Liz T]

John,

Great suggestion!

I added a comment and I changed the status. It did not happen when I added the comment. It happened when I changed the status.

I went to the Global Automation Audit Log and there were absolutely no rules that fired, on that board or any others during that time.

I know the rule is available in the library templates, but I don't have it turned on.

[Liz T]

Just for "fun" I enabled the rule, so it would show in my list, and then turned it off. However, the behavior is still happening...it assigns the issue to me if I change the status.

[Liz T]

Hi John,

I saw this article https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Automatically-change-assignee-when-changing-status/qaq-p/1228912.

I followed the steps posted from PVS to take a closer look at the default workflow that came with the project and it turns out the default workflow had the automation in the Post Function like you suggested.

I didn't know how to look that deep into a workflow. I was looking at the workflow diagram and nothing showed when I hovered over the arrows of the transition so I didn't realize there was more to it.

Thanks so much for your help!

[John Funk]

Great! Glad you figured it out.