How to change status on issues at the end of their workflow?

[David Mudge]

I have some issues which followed a workflow which ended in the status "Done". "Done" has no outgoing transitions available, so these issues are, as intended, dead and buried.

However, for other issue types, the final status is "Closed". I want to standardise on "Closed" being a final status, so I can use "Done" for other things.

I have not been able to find a way to change the status of the first set of completed issues from Done to Closed. Jira is telling me that because there is no outgoing transition on "Done" in the active workflow, I can't add one (e.g. to add a transition to a "Closed" status). When I try to do a BUlk Edit on the issues in question, I do not get an option to change the status (presumably for the same reason, i.e. that there is no transition away from Done available).

How can I move these issues from Done to Closed?

Note: Done is used elsewhere, so I can't just delete it altogether or rename it to Closed.

Thanks.

[Boris Georgiev _Appfire_ · Accepted solution]

Here's a suggestion:

1. Create a copy of the workflow
2. Remove Done from the copy
3. Switch the old workflow with the copied one in the workflow scheme - this will cause Workflow Scheme Migration to be executed where you can specify all issues currently in Done status to be moved to Closed status
4. Then edit the workflow and add Done status again

[David Mudge]

Great, thanks this worked fine!

[Norman Abramovitz]

Follow these directions. It is really is just editing your workflow.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=308609031

[David Mudge]

Yes, but the problem is this:

See here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Configuring+Workflow#uneditable_steps

Limitations when editing an active workflow

Please note that the following limitations apply when editing an active workflow (i.e. a draft workflow):

• ....
• If a status has no outgoing transitions (Global transitions are not considered), it cannot have any new outgoing transitions added, regular or global.

Problem solved now, see Boris' suggestion. Thanks for the help anyway!

[Norman Abramovitz]

You did extra steps but the main point is copy the workflow instead of editing the active workflow as Boris had you do. See the resolution section.

https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRAKB/Cannot+Add+Transitions+or+Delete+Steps+in+Draft+Workflows

[David Mudge]

Yes thats right. The crucial step I was missing is the need to copy the workflow and edit that rather than try to edit an active workflow.

[David Mudge]

No, unfortunately not. Once the issue is "Done" it is Done, however now I want it to actually be "Closed".

[David Mudge]

Hi, yes I have tried to do that. For new issues I now have the workflow I want. The problem is with the previously existing issues, which are already in their (final) status of Done, I am not allowed to add a transition in the workflow from Done to Closed, to set the status to Closed and make the old issues consistent with new ones.

[Norman Abramovitz]

Do you have a go back to previous status transition? If so use that through the bulk edit interface. Then you should be able go back to done and then to close.

[Norman Abramovitz]

You need to update your workflow.