Configuring the "Issues in Epic" list order

[Dave Anderson]

When viewing an Epic (https://jira.foo.com/browse/FOO-22) there is a list of linked issues "Issues in Epic". The list is ordered by Global Rank in descending order. I would like the list in ascending order, as nature intended. How can I configure this?

[Chamilka Wijeratne]

Hi All,

I just found out that, if you arrange the stories or tasks of an epic in the order you want on the JIRA agile board/backlog, the tickets will be displayed in the same order under the issues in Epic view.

Hope this is helpful.

[Michael Rans]

Thanks for this. Don't know why Atlassian don't add this facility directly to the Epic view. Please vote for this here: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-40929.

[Lucas Stannis]

When I arrange it on Backlog it does not re-arrange the Epic issue list. Probably it's just possible when it's in the agile board. Gonna try that. 

[Bill_Tarbell]

Might be worth noting that the backlog reorder isn't reflected on the epic unless you reload the epic page.

[Cynthia Susairaj]

It's also worth mentioning that the tickets in current ongoing sprint which are in the EPIC seem to sit at the bottom of the epic. So there is no way to sort the current's sprint's epic's stories.

[Roger Studner]

As with most things Atlassian - simultaneously none and all of this is true.

I can re-arrange them in the backlog view.. but they WILL NEVER, EVER, re-arrange when opening the epic and looking at them>

Rank is enabled etc etc etc

[Luisa Randon]

I would like to organize my issues in Epic as well. move to Top and move to bottom are not very user friendly !!!

[Andreia Fernandes]

Hello,

This was open in 2014, and here we are, 2017 with the same problem.

Anyone knows if this is still an open issue on Atlassian Support? Where we can vote and watch the issue.

[Kathy Hart]

2018, still the same issue. 

[Brendon Walton]

2020, still same issue

[Tim Malone]

😂

[Kacee Bui]

@Brendon Walton LOL

[Lucas Stannis]

Still the same problem.

[Mihai Schwarz]

Still here! :))

[Christoph Schmidpeter]

I created an issue a while ago, but there was no response at all:

JSWSERVER-16151: Moving issues up and down in 'Issues in this epic'

[Christopher Callaway]

2019, can confirm same issue. 

[Alejandra Stamato]

Still here..

[Jaron]

2020 is here (and it's still here)

[Daniel Hong]

@Brendon Walton Are you the Oracle they speak of? :D

[Vadim Koba]

still here 2020

[Shubham_Agarwal]

Go to Project -> Backlog, and you will see all your Tasks (also Bug, and Story). Rearranging the Tasks here will rearrange it in the epic as well

[Krzysztof Bogdan]

still here 2058

[Danny Davidson]

3 things worth mentioning (besides the obvious "Im wanting this functionality too")

1. either in this thread or a similar one, there is a link to the Atlassian Jira and the request for this on Jira Server (as opposed to cloud) was closed and they said not enough interest (I didn't bother reading the one for cloud, but It was still open)

2. As someone already pointed out, the "sort the backlog = sort the issues in epic" only works for things that are actually in backlog (i.e. not in an active or future sprint) which is pretty silly considering I can reorder issues in a current sprint in the backlog tab\screen

3. one thing I haven't seen mentioned that "could" be helpful for some....when you open an epic, in the "issues in Epic" section you can hover your mouse over to the far right side of each issue, and you should see a little gear icon. in that icon's drop-down I see the options "Rank to  top" and "Rank to  bottom" So while I doubt this helps most of us, for those who really only need to do this once in a blue moon, or don't have tons of stories, maybe this is a feasible workaround.

[Jean-Michel Bernard]

Hello, we're in 2021 and still not addressed :D

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-40929

[Barrett Cope]

We should openly discuss other product alternatives and perhaps that would then get their attention. There are several issues I'm watching that have been open for 6+ years and that is pretty disheartening.

Has anyone experimented with Monday or Asana and enjoyed their experience?

[Nizar Hawawreh]

2021, March, still here

[Stan Dimitrov]

2021, April, still here

[Peter Wu]

2021, May the 4th be with you. 

[Elizabeth Hyatt]

Does everyone else do this?  I mean it's not as ideal as drag and drop but it works.

The RANK TO TOP and RANK TO BOTTOM will fix this.  So for example, you have the following tasks out of order:

5) Spread jelly on piece B

3) Get a plate, spoon, and knife

6) Eat PB&J

4) Spread peanut butter on piece A

1) Go grocery shopping

4) Put bread together

2) Get out bread, peanut butter, and jelly

------ Here are the steps to put them in order:

5) Spread jelly on piece B (Rank to Bottom)

6) Eat PB&J (Rank to Bottom)

4) Spread peanut butter on piece A (Rank to Top)

3) Get a plate, spoon, and knife (Rank to Top)

2) Get out bread, peanut butter, and jelly (Rank to Top)

1) Go grocery shopping (Rank to Top)

REFRESH - then all your tasks will be in order.

[Dave Anderson]

I’m very excited to see that this issue is coming up to five years old!

After half a decade of comments from a great bunch of people, Wilson and I have come to think of you all as our special friends.

On 27th I’ll be at the pub, in Dublin Ireland, ready to buy anyone a drink if they can figure out how to get this issue resolved.

Your friend,

Dave

Ex- Jira user

[Mike Mahler]

LOVE IT!

[Adrian Lopez]

this is what a feedback driven product looks like?

[Phil Volkers]

At least for Done/Accepted tickets, if you go outside of the Epic page, say on a Kanban or Release board, re-ranking the tickets will update the order displayed on the Epic page. Not the most efficient thing. Sorting controls would be very welcome.

[Chandra Babu Merla]

This works, Thanks!

[Christoph Schmidpeter]

Please vote for the ticket I created some time ago for that issue to get it fixed (hopefully):

JSWSERVER-16151 Moving issues up and down in 'Issues in this epic'

[Alex Clatterbuck]

Emailed the head of product.

Honestly a head scratcher that this isn't the default experience:

- Resolved issues are move to the bottom of the list

- Open tickets are ordered by priority.  This priority is visible within the table view.

[Darrell Massie]

Hi Alex, 

Did you get a response on this?

Another option would be to allow the order allow the order to be adjusted manually (drag and drop). Makes it a bit easier to handle depenencies etc if they exist.

[gabbeaudoin]

So much complexity for something that could follow everyone's intuition. Alex said it best.

[Patrick O_Connell]

Well, closed issues sure as hell aren't moved to the bottom! This drives me nuts with the stories in my Jira epics.

And the rank-to-bottom thing doesn't work for me. Not sure why.

Yet another example of Atlassian's attitude of "Yeah, we're just not going to do anything about that, even with so many people frustrated by it."

Your software is user-facing. You should be working actively to address their concerns.

/ rant off

Pat O'Connell
Technical Writer
MindGeek Montreal

[Svetlana Kononova]

Guys, this way was working for me: 

1. Create a filter like "Epic link" = XXX-1234".
2. Make it shared with everyone.
3. Create your own dashbord.
4. Add here gadget "Filter Results" and specify your saved filter.
5. For each individual issue go to properties (gear icon in the end of issue row) and click "Rank to top" starting from the less important issue (or "Rank to bottom" for the most important one).

Done.

Just enjoy the user-friendliness of it.

[Tim Malone]

I get a ... button instead of a gear icon here, and the menu under the ... button doesn't have the 'Rank to top'/'Rank to bottom' items :( 

[Chad Cantrell]

+100

[Jovan Milicevic]

I have this issue several times so at the end here is what I do:

1. Create filter "EPIC fix" with a simple query 
   parentEpic = EPIC_TASK_ID
2. Create a new Board EPIC fix and configure it to use "EPIC fix" filter
3. Open Board settings
4. In General find Ranking and Add ranking
5. Optionally, if you have some finished tasks in Columns add also their status to column "TO DO" in order to be able to see them in the backlog
6. Reorder tasks the way you want
7. Reload Epic to check if everything is fine
8. When you want to fix the next epic, just change "EPIC fix" filter to use another parent Epic id.

[Dennis T]

I think creating a Kanban board works best for this. Make sure to clear the board sub-filter and set Hide completed issues older than to Never mind, show all though.

You might also want to exclude Sub-Tasks and the Epic itself from the board filter. E.g.,

project IN (ACM) AND parentEpic IN (ACM-100) AND key NOT IN (ACM-100) AND type NOT IN (Sub-task) ORDER BY Rank

[Mirre Snelting]

@Alex ClatterbuckNews on this?

[Louis Guitton]

Hi Mirre =) 

[Mirre Snelting]

Hahaha hey Louis! :)

[Alex Stahlmann]

I am in search for an easy solution for this as well. Creating a filter for each epic just for this purpose isn't a user friendly solution imo. A 'rank +1' and 'rank-1' option would be pretty helpful already.

[Jan Anderson]

I added numeric labels to all of the issues under a particular epic and then displayed that column too to help get them in the right order when Ranking to Top. Not the most user friendly way of setting rank but at this point I'll use what I can.   Too bad this isn't a higher priority since it is such an old request and many people seem to want/need the same function.

[Mahuza Menza]

i am facing same problem.

[Elizabeth Hyatt]

Does everyone else do this?  I mean it's not as ideal as drag and drop but it works.

The RANK TO TOP and RANK TO BOTTOM will fix this.  So for example, you have the following tasks out of order:

5) Spread jelly on piece B

3) Get a plate, spoon, and knife

6) Eat PB&J

4) Spread peanut butter on piece A

1) Go grocery shopping

4) Put bread together

2) Get out bread, peanut butter, and jelly

------ Here are the steps to put them in order:

5) Spread jelly on piece B (Rank to Bottom)

6) Eat PB&J (Rank to Bottom)

4) Spread peanut butter on piece A (Rank to Top)

3) Get a plate, spoon, and knife (Rank to Top)

2) Get out bread, peanut butter, and jelly (Rank to Top)

1) Go grocery shopping (Rank to Top)

REFRESH - then all your tasks will be in order.

[Shubham_Agarwal]

Might be too late here, I don't think you can arrange tasks in epic from the epic page.

Go to Project -> Backlog, and you will see all your Tasks (also Bug, and Story). Rearranging the Tasks here will reflect the change on the epic page.

[Alex Bernardin]

yeah, some folks have pointed that approach out. The jira folks probably piggybacked on the Rank field.

Epics can have tickets from different projects, that may or may not all live on a single scrum board (or may not live on a board at all), so this solution may not be viable for all situations, or might require a custom-scope board created solely to manipulate the ticket ordering for a specific epic, which is pretty tedious.   

[matthew ryan]

Me too!!! The strange thing is that sub-tasks can be moved in an epic but the stories/issues cannot be moved in the same way.

[nhawawreh]

6 years and it is still here !!

[Spiner Tsai]

It works for me when using Jira Cloud. Go to Project -> Backlog -> EPICS -> 

Reorder tasks in the Backlog section.

[Michael Rans]

This workaround has already been suggested but apparently this does not work with the current's sprint's epic's stories. In any case, ordering issues should be directly in the Epic view and not require messing around in the backlog.

[Alejandra Stamato]

at least 5 years with the same issue...

[Kathy Hart]

An add on like Portfolio or Structure is still the only way to see all your epics on one screen with associated Stories or Tasks sorted directly beneath the Epic, and subtasks beneath each appropriate Story or Task. 

Neither of these are free. 

[Jose Luis Casarrubias]

I just created an Agile Board, then I selected the Epic in the agile board, and then I just moved the issues in the epic in order I required. 

After that, I just returned and refreshed the Epic ticket main view, and the order was kept based what I did in the agile board.

[Keith Starsmeare]

I "fixed" my epic by listing the issues in order (I used an editor, but could easily have used a filter in another window) and then worked from last to first marking each as Rank To Top. It doesn't re-order unless you refresh, you can if you want to check progress. Tedious, but only the work of a couple of minutes.

Some of these issues have been through sprints though. I didn't spot any weird side effects from changing their ranking. I'd have hoped for a warning if what I was doing was bad...

[Alex Bernardin]

an interesting solution. There's only one Rank field, as far as I know, so it does seem that doing 'rank to top' would impact the position of the ticket in a kanban or scrum board, which might be problematic. 

[Stephanie Latterman]

It actually works the other way around. Ranking within the issue doesn't affect the sprint. But moving the issue in the Backlog Board to, say, the next sprint will change the order the issue appears within the epic ticket, if another issue from that epic was already assigned to that sprint!

[Steven Marusic]

I have this need as well. Just throwing my hat in the ring. I have found other threads here as well asking for the same thing.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSWSERVER-9688

As an example. 

[Keith Hudson]

Add a heading row above the list and provide sort capability through clicking the heading.  Lots of OpenSource JS tools to do this.  It'll allow for anyone's use case as long as the column is exposed.

I don't care about that ranking stuff, just want to sort by issue id.