Columns and their statuses

[Mohammed Naseer]

If there’s a status I’ve added for a project which I have subsequently deleted, in order to do some house keeping, how do I remove the status if doesn’t have a ‘delete' link because some status have ‘delete' and ‘edit' links whereas others only have ‘edit' links only ( https://xyz.atlassian.net/secure/admin/ViewStatuses.jspa ). Also once you define a status, is it only for a project or you can use the same status with a different project. 

[Mohammed Naseer]

figured it out. Basically, I had to go to 'Columns' under 'Board Settings' and then remove the status from there and it then disappeared from the 'workflow' page under 'Issues' (under 'Jira Administration').

[Peter DeWitt]

Mohammed, Statuses are global for Jira. Once created, they can be used in any workflow.  The reason you cannot delete this specific status is that it is still being used in a worklfow somewhere in Jira. 

[Mohammed Naseer]

Hi Peter, I've gone ahead and deleted every single project but the statuses still persist, am i missing something ?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Workflows are global objects that projects refer to.   Projects are irrelevant here. 

You need to remove the status from any workflow using it.

[Mohammed Naseer]

I'm trying to understand what you said. Previously I had removed the projects, and then navigating to 'Issues -> Workflows' revealed that it's empty (ie no workflows), therefore I would assume there are no statuses linked to any workflows because there are no workflows under issues/workflows. What am I still missing...

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

You need to look at the workflows.  Not projects.

Go to admin -> workflows and look again.  You simply cannot have "no workflows" as Jira ships with one that can't be deleted or changed.

It might be the expanded area you've missed here.  The list of workflows is in two parts - "active" at the top, in an expanded area, then "inactive" below, which is collapsed by default.

[Mohammed Naseer]

thanks, I managed to delete them.

[Mohammed Naseer]

This time round I am having some problems with removing a status which is associated with an active workflow. 

These are the steps I took :

I created a column (test-z) and created an associated status (test-z). I then deleted the same column, but not clear on what are the steps to delete the status (test-z). 

I went to the 'status' page ( https://xyz.atlassian.net/secure/admin/ViewStatuses.jspa ) and clicked '1 associated workflow' link in the same row as test-z, which then showed a pop-up ( Associated workflows for test-z). 

I then clicked the link in the pop-up ( https://xyz.atlassian.net/secure/admin/ViewWorkflowSteps.jspa?workflowMode=live&workflowName=Software%20Simplified%20Workflow%20for%20Project%20DOUB ) which takes me to the 'workflows' page. I am now able to see test-z, but unable to edit the status here directly on the same page.

I then clicked the 'edit' link towards the top right corner ( https://xyz.atlassian.net/secure/admin/workflows/WorkflowDesigner.jspa?workflowMode=draft&wfName=Software+Simplified+Workflow+for+Project+DOUB ) but the 'test-z' status is not present here within the diagram, therefore I cannot remove it from here.

[Peter DeWitt]

Make sure you delete all the workflow schemes and then the workflows. They will be under the inactive drop-down.

[Mohammed Naseer]

thanks, I hope I done it the right way, the schemes and then the workflows.

Can I as part of house keeping, delete all the inactive workflow schemes and workflows, that are deletable ?

[Peter DeWitt]

Definitely, you could also export the workflows and save them in case you ever want to use them again.

Glad you got things all figured out.

[Mohammed Naseer]

issue solved, thank you so much   :-)