A trick to move older issues to a new, single project?

[Andrew Miller]

Hi,

We initially set up JIRA by client projects. We are now using Service Desk, and wish to migrate the older issues into the new, unified project. We've added new fields over time, some of which are required by the field permission scheme. We don't want to populate the fields on the old issues because doing so would skew data and reporting. We decided we would just leave the issues in the projects and disable them, but then I had an idea.

Is it possible to change the field permission scheme (make the fields optional) in the new, main project; move the issues to the new project; and then change back to the first field permission scheme? I thought this might be a way around having to populate the fields. It is very unlikely that the tickets will be opened or edited once moved. We would like them to be available for search and and reporting under one project.

If this doesn't work, is there another way of doing this?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Your thoughts on "temporarily use a scheme where all fields are optional" are exactly what I would have done straight away.  There are other approaches, but that one is by far the most simple, quick and intuitive.

The only drawback really is that issues that are missing mandatory fields will demand them on edit or transition, and that may not gel with your setup, but even so, that's reasonably easy to work around when you need to.

[Andrew Miller]

Thanks very much for your quick response. I'll let you know how it goes.