How can I bulk populate a new field to the value of an existing field without database access?

[Esther Strom, ACP-JA]

I'm an admin, but do not have direct access to the database to run SQL queries. Is there any other way I can bulk populate a new field with the value of an existing field?

Example: we have an Owner field that currently allows one name. We want to switch it to allow multiple names, but without database access, we can't change field types, so I've added a new field called Owners that's a multi-user picker. But we have hundreds of tickets, and updating them manually one by one would take way more time than I have. Is there any way to do the equivalent of this query, without database access?

UPDATE issue SET Owners = Owner

[randyz]

Hi Esther,

It will take some effort but totally do-able.

Here are the steps:

1) Create the new multi-user field and add it to the applicable project.

2) Use a list of the users populated in the original user field of the project then manually bulk edit(clone) the same user name onto the new multi-user field.

Best,

Randy

[Paul Alexander]

Very interesting, Randy, but can you expand a little more detail on achieving step #2?

[Esther Strom, ACP-JA]

Exactly. I've already done step 1; my whole question was how to go about step 2. I don't want to have to edit each record separately, and I'd rather not have to separate out groups of users and do multiple bulk updates.

[Esther Strom, ACP-JA]

Also, it doesn't seem possible to do a bulk update on a new field - the field just doesn't appear in the list of fields that are available to update in the standard bulk update screen.