As JIRA admin, why am I being denied access to a Board's configuration, and how do I fix that?

Ethan Trewhitt November 5, 2018

A user has requested that I switch ownership of a project away from a person who left. They linked me to the board and I, as JIRA admin, do not have access to it, for unknown reasons.

I get the error "The requested board cannot be viewed because it either does not exist or you do not have permission to view it."

Why am I getting this error? How do I regain administrative access to the board? I don't need to see the board's contents, but I do need to access its configuration page.

3 answers

1 vote
Petter Gonçalves
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
November 5, 2018

Hello Ethan,

The restriction to edit the ownership of the board is not related to the board itself, but to the filter that it is linked to.

That being said, I would recommend you to perform the following steps:

- Type GG > search for Global Permissions 

Check if you are properly added to the permission Manage group filter subscriptions

- Navigate to JIRA Settings > System > Shared Filters and search for the filter which is linked to the board

- Change the Ownership of the filter and then add yourself to the filter subscription, So you can watch the filter and access anything related to the board

Ethan Trewhitt November 5, 2018

This is quite a workaround. May I recommend that JIRA add the ability for admins to view boards that use filters within whose permissions the admin is not explicitly listed?

Additionally, you have asked me to modify the filter assigned to a board. Strictly speaking, it may not be obvious which filter a board is using, since I don't know anything about the board I can't access.

You see how this is a bit roundabout?

Getting down to it: as JIRA admin, I need a way to view all boards, and configure all boards, even if I do not have explicit access to their filters.

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Hugues Gelszinnis December 30, 2019

"Getting down to it: as JIRA admin, I need a way to view all boards, and configure all boards, even if I do not have explicit access to their filters."

YES!

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Moses Thomas
Community Leader
Community Leader
Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
July 9, 2020

@Ethan Trewhitt @Hugues Gelszinnis I  Completely agree,  it was annoying  and still annoying that i could not even view all boards. This one should not be based on filters "as JIRA admin(s) we should have access to all boards  regardless of accesses to filters

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0 votes
Chad Norwood January 7, 2019

I have a similar problem. I am a Jira admin and owner of a kanban board and the filter it uses. When I clone the board, I can't see the new board, get the same message "The requested board cannot be viewed because it either does not exist or you do not have permission to view it."

Everything mentioned above either does not apply to me or does not change outcome.

0 votes
Alexey Matveev
Rising Star
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November 5, 2018

Hello,

You would need to be added as the board Administrator (board settings -> Administrators).

Ethan Trewhitt November 5, 2018

I can't view the page where board administrators are added because I am not a current board administrator. I am the JIRA server administrator, and for some reason I am being denied access to this board AND to its configuration page.

Alexey Matveev
Rising Star
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November 5, 2018

You need to find the filter defined for the board and change the owner of the filter to yourself. In this case you will be able to see the board.

You can not see the board because the filter defined for the board is not shared with you. 

Try to look for the filter in the system -> shared filters.

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Ethan Trewhitt November 5, 2018

This is a big oversight. I should not need explicit permission to view a filter in order to manage a) the filter or b) any boards that use the filter. This is an oversight in JIRA's design.

I do not want to own the filter. The filter is owned by the person who manages the project. I should not need to break the filter's permissions to fix the board.

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Alexey Matveev
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November 5, 2018

You can ask this person, who owns the filter, to share this filter with the group, to which you belong.

That is how it is in Jira. Personally I also do not feel that it is right. Administrator should see all boards, but it is not the case.

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