Cloning epics and it's children tasks

[Caroline Downes]

Hi there,

One of our templates on our client's website requires similar Epics and children tasks as part of an upgrade project (each carline needs to be updated to the new templates). As part of the project I would like to be able to clone the epic and it's children and then able to bulk edit (component, version and URLs). How do I do this? I know how to clone an issue but I really need to clone the epic and its links to it's children tasks.

I have attached a screenshot below to show you what exactly I would like to clone and then bulk edit.

Thanks!

[Mauro Badii · Accepted solution]

Hi Caroline,

As I just commented on the support request, there is a Feature request for this functionality at https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/GHS-7721

Please vote and watch that issue to be kept updated.

Cheers, :)
Mauro

[Kevin_Railsback]

That Jira link doesn't work, but its been 4.5 years now and this still doesn't seem to be an option.  Any update?

[Marc Laveson]

Same here, I would like the ability to clone an epic and all of its children tasks.

[Suzanne Layman]

Please add this functionality!

[Kevin_Railsback]

FYI we gave up on waiting for this, and set up Deep Clone which has exactly this functionality.  Hopefully that helps some other folks (developer of that plugin also commented below in the thread).

[Ibrahim Farhan]

Epic Clone allows you clone Epics and all Related Issues.

A new lightweight app released recently by IJ-Solutions Team.

[Danish Hassan]

Hi,

This is EPIC CLONE free app and it worked perfectly.

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1220519/epic-clone?hosting=server&tab=overview

[Frederick Washburn]

Just tried this on our Server instance, it works great however the Epic Name entered on the clone screen does not get put into the new cloned Epic - it's retaining the name from the original. Not a big deal you just need to remember to change it.

Also notices that the the text in the Epic Name field to change was the same as the Summary and not representative of the Epic Name in the issue.

Doesn't look like there is support for this, with it being a free app.

[Ibrahim Farhan]

Are you using the last version ( 1.3.0)?

[Ibrahim Farhan]

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1222030/epic-clone-pro?hosting=server&tab=overview

[Jack Hunter [HeroCoders]]

Epics Map also allows cloning an epic and all its children's tasks in Jira Cloud. 

It is a free app that my team has released recently. 

UPDATE: Clone epic functionality has been extracted to a separate free plugin named Clone Epic Template for Jira

[Harshal Rawade]

thanks!!

[Patrick]

This works great and also good for epic overview/progress

[John Deleppo]

I just added Epics Map to my Jira Cloud instance and received the following error when I tried to clone a next gen Epic. 

An error occurred while cloning the epic

The operation didn't succeed. Some of the issues might not have been cloned. Error details: {"errorMessages":["At least one of 'id' or 'key' is required to identify an issue."],"errors":{}}

I was trying to clone an epic that was created before I installed Epics Map.  Could that have something to do with it?

[Piotr Stefaniak [HeroCoders]]

Hello John,

No, I don't think so. We have identified this error to happen when epic issues (or the epic itself) are/is having issue link(s) to a non-cloned issue. The fix for that particular problem is already deployed on production, so I'd recommend you to try clone your epic with our app once again.

Should it fail again, please send us an email to support@herocoders.com so we can investigate this issue together and find solution.

Regards,
Piotr Stefaniak / HeroCoders developer

[Aline Chapman]

I just installed the Epics map and tried to clone an epic which contains stories in various status but received the following error: 

An error occurred while cloning the epic

The operation didn't succeed. Some of the issues might not have been cloned. Error details: Cannot read property 'key' of undefined

Any assistance is much appreciated. Thanks!

[John Deleppo]

Hi Aline,

For me, after receiving a similar error outlined above, it turned out the Epics were in fact cloned.  I didn't see the newly created Epics until I refreshed my browser session.

[Aline Chapman]

Correct, the Epic gets cloned but the issues within the epic are not cloned, after that error you get simply an epic clone without the children.

I'm wondering if it has to do with the presence of one or more fields population, because I can clone the epic and children for some but not the others.

[Piotr Stefaniak [HeroCoders]]

Hello Aline,

Current implementation of Epics Map clones the issues in the context of currently logged in user. So yes, it might be field presence issue.

For a quick troubleshooting, you can check if on create issue dialog the relevant fields are available. In case of cloning children of epic that would be at least "Epic Link" field. Is it on create dialog visible for you? Otherwise, cloning operation might fail as it is unable to link the children issue to the cloned Epic.

Anyway, I'd suggest you to contact us via our support desk portal ( https://herocoders.atlassian.net/servicedesk/customer/portal/3 ) so we can investigate this issue together.

Regards,

Piotr Stefaniak / HeroCoders developer

[Pavel Pavlovsky_AppLiger_]

Using our Easy Templates for Jira Cloud you can create clone of Epics with children tasks and subtasks. Then use this template to easily restore Epics structure in selected project.

Drop us a line if more questions will appear!

[Danish Hassan]

Hi,

This is EPIC CLONE free app and it worked perfectly.

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1220519/epic-clone?hosting=server&tab=overview

[Shrinivas Patil]

Does this clone even the tasks associated with EPIC? I am looking for a free option where we can close EPIC and tasks under EPIC.

[Shrinivas Patil]

I got this enabled and works perfect in JIra Server instance.

[Ibrahim Farhan]

Can you please give a short review on that?

[Shrinivas Patil]

Since i am an end user, i had to approach our Jira admins to enable this addon. Once they enabled, we were able to see an option in more button when you are in EPIC screen. Once you click on that, we can see the list of linked issues with an option to select or deselect depending on which linked issues we want to clone. 

This app is free and also there is no other option to bulk clone issues as compared to this, unless we are going for some paid addons. 

Great work by the team in developing this.

[Shrinivas Patil]

one of the popular request i keep hearing about EPIC CLone is an option to choose which issues linked to an EPIC to clone. Currently it clones all issues but many have asked me an option where they can have an option to choose among the linked issues. 

So far EPIC clone is working very well for us and we also use this option for bulk clone which by default is not available even with Jira admins login.

[Ibrahim Farhan]

There is an advanced Clone Epic App where you can choose issues, linked issues, sub-tasks and more 

https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1222030/epic-clone?hosting=server&tab=overview

It works fine on Server and DC. 

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

With our cloud app Deep Clone for Jira you can clone Epics and all of its children tasks.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with us at support@codefortynine.com when you have any questions.

[Kevin_Railsback]

Yes, that's what we ended up going with as our solution and it's working great.  This really does seem like it should be a core functionality of Jira, but I'm very glad your team has solved this for us.

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

Thank you, Kevin! It's great to hear that our app makes your everyday work easier. That confirms me that we're on the right track :)

As mentioned above: If you experience something negative when working with Deep Clone let us know.

[Nishanth Thimmareddy (Appfire)]

Hi all,

You can use Clone Plus for Jira Cloud to clone an epic, its issues and their subtasks with estimates also. 

I'm the product manager for the app.

If you have questions or feedback about Clone Plus for Jira, please get in touch with us directly.

Cheers,

Nishanth T

[Liber]

The out of the box solution is to

0. Go to the Epic you want to clone/copy and choose View in search by "Issues in epic"
1. export the tasks to CSV, with only the most necessary fields:
type of task, summary, description and Epic link

2. import the csv and re-assign the epic link in the process. For this step you can pre-create the new epic so you can assign the tasks so they end up there directly in the import process

Took me a while to figure out but it worked well when I made it work
Here is the link to get help to import issues from CSV:
https://support.atlassian.com/jira-core-cloud/docs/create-issues-using-the-csv-importer/