Is it possible to recover a deleted issue?

[Jehosúa Ibuarben]

We don't know how, but we lost a few issues and all the data in them. We wonder if there is any way to recover all that information. 

Thank you.

[Joe Pitt · Accepted solution]

Basically no. Do not allow deleting issues. I suggest closing with a resolution value of Deleted and anything you want to delete. I implement it with a special transition only the project lead can execute and it requires the fill in a reason field. When you delete it is GONE. Hardly a week goes by without someone wanting to restore an issue. Missing issue numbers will eventually cause a question about what it was and why was it deleted even if it was done properly. Missing data always brings in the question of people hiding data that may have looked bad.

The only viable way to restore an issue is to create a new instance of JIRA and restore a backup that has the issues. Then export them to a csv file and import them to your production instance. You will lose the history. 

[Claudia Griesmer]

Are deleted issues recorded in the Audit log?  Is there a way to see what issues were deleted?  I  want to see if the missing issues were deleted or something else happened.  (to prevent this issue in the future, I removed the Deletion permission from my project)

[Yuliia_Borivets__SaaSJet_]

Hi @Claudia Griesmer 

Unfortunately, there is no Jira built-in functionality to record deleted issues for the audit trail. My team has developed the Keep deleted issues feature to help users store all of the data safe and sound. 

You can start record deleted issues with one button click using the Issue History add-on. Try how it works or learn more.

[Shannon S]

Hi @Yuliia_Borivets__SaaSJet_,

Please be aware of our Community Guidelines against necroposting (promoting your team's product on threads older than six months old).

• Atlassian Community online guidelines for Marketplace and Solution Partners 
• Revisiting our necroposting guidelines 

Proposed new guidelines:

In general, avoid posting on old threads (six months or more old), aka necroposting. However, you may post on old threads in certain cases. The rules are:

• Your post must add value to the thread 

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• For now, do not update more than 2 old posts per day; we may remove this cap if the process goes smoothly

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• Include a marketplace search link rather than a link to a direct app as shown below.

I appreciate your understanding!

Take care,

Shannon

[Yuliia_Borivets__SaaSJet_]

Hi @Shannon S 

Thank you for reminding the rules. I believe I try my best to follow them, Anyway, I will not respond to 6 months older questions.

[Randy Taylor]

Please add the "issue -> move to project trash" and "project -> list trash" and project -> "restore issue from project trash" features with corresponding API's

The project -> list trash would be only visible to say Jira Admins or project admins by default. (configurable down to users who can create issues)

Allow admins to configure "issue -> Delete" becomes  "issue -> move to project trash" on a per project basis.  

Document what happens to links to trashed issues.  When those issues are restored from trash are the links re-instated?  (They should be, but some edge cases may need to be documented)

Make it the default property value in a future release for newly created projects.

[Christopher Harris]

It seems like a horrendous omission that Jira is a cloud based product in 2020 with no ability get data back.  This is a paid product.  Virtually every free or paid cloud product I've seen keeps all data forever.

Plus the design is 'dangerous by default' where all users seem to have delete rights and one has to put their IT engineer hat on to design around the delete issue.  

This thread is an issue for any and every Jira customer, how-about the product incorporate a solution out of the box.  My mac in 1985 had a recycle bin.

[Lisa Förstberg]

On the other hand...1) it's easy to configure the delete permission  2) companies need to delete issues as a step in their data cleansing routines to stay compliant.

[jbtibor]

"2) companies need to delete issues as a step in their data cleansing routines to stay compliant."

@Lisa Förstberg 

It's not about not having delete at all, but to not have it enabled for all users by default. It should be an explicit choice to enable delete for selected or all users. 

[Steve Sobol]

Yes. Needs to be a choice, and deletions shouldn't be allowed by default (except for Jira admins).

There should at least be some sort of confirmation if you go to delete something, and since people are human, the ability to roll back the action if necessary.

Data retention regulations, privacy laws... there are really good reasons to have these mechanisms in place, and I refuse to believe Atlassian's larger customers haven't weighed in on this topic. (I'm sure they have, although not here.)

[Richard Ryan]

I couldn't agree more with the active admins above - the absence of a way for Admins to  restore Jira Cloud Issues is a HUGE functionality deficit.  It appears that with the new "Trash" functionality we have a way to restore Projects that have been deleted - but not issues.  This is basic missing admin functionality that needs to be corrected.  The "remove delete permissions" workaround is not a good solution.

[Randy Taylor]

Absolutely.  This is crazy.  I user accidently delete's an issue and boom they are screwed!  What kind of ..... lame product do you have here?  You guys claim to have an Enterprise solution.   

Where's the Jira Issue trash bin?   

Where's the recover issue from trash feature?

[Richard Ryan]

I believe the ability for sys or project admins to recover deleted issues would be a huge win for Atlassian, and I'm frankly not clear what technical issues are preventing this long standing request from being implemented.  As @Christopher Harris noted, this is such basic functionality in any enterprise application that it's baffling to me that it hasn't been implemented.

[Mehmet A _Bloompeak_]

Hi @Igor Kosoy ,

Unfortunately, as of 2021, there is no built-in functionality to restore deleted issues in Jira.

For that specific need, we built Restore Deleted Issues app. After installation, it starts tracking every deleted issue. It keeps track of when and who deleted the issues.You can view and restore summary, description and comments except attachments. Hope it helps.

[Steve Sobol]

That doesn't help if you delete an issue that existed before your extension was installed, and besides, that needs to be part of the core product, not an add-on.

I do appreciate your input, though.

[Mehmet A _Bloompeak_]

Hi @Steve Sobol ,

Yes, Restore Deleted Issues app starts tracking issue deletions after the installation of the app. Therefore, you cannot restore an issue which was deleted before the app installation. I agree that it needs to be part of the core product. As a marketplace vendor, we built this Jira app(aka extension, add-on) to fill this gap.

[Deleted user]

There are cases where an issue is duplicated in a project - I'd delete this as it is noise. I can also reject it, but if the option exists to delete, why wouldn't I? Errors in set up are not deemed as reportable content and are not needed for any sort of tracking. As someone else mentioned, I am the customer, user and admin - if I have the ability to delete and recover a project, provide the ability to delete and recover an issue. 

[Igor Kosoy]

It's 2021, still no way for the Jira admin to restore deleted issues, and to search/view the audit log. Mindblowing. 

[Claudiu Lionte]

Hi Jehosúa,

As @Joe Pitt said above, a Jira issue cannot be recovered once it's deleted. This is why it's very important to consider carefully the Delete issues permission.

However, are you sure that the issues are deleted? Maybe they just don't appear in your board. Have you tried searching for them using a JQL like:

Project = ABC and text ~ 'title of lost issue'

?

Claudiu 

[Christopher Harris]

yes, this is presently a fact "a Jira issue cannot be recovered once it's deleted".  Make that not a fact, make the product better, adopt the concept of a recycle-bin/deleted items like virtually every other product in existence and certainly any cloud product.

[Steve Sobol]

Yes. Totally, completely, 100% unacceptable - and as long as Jira's been around, I can't believe no one has a problem with it. In fact, I'd have to believe that some of your enterprise customers must have complained about it at some point (and they throw enough money at you that I'm shocked that you haven't changed this behavior on behalf of one of those customers).

I mostly love Jira, but there are a handful of annoying design flaws. This, however, is far worse than an annoying design flaw. Thank GOD I happened to remember some of the details of the issue I just deleted (it was one of mine).

And while I'm complaining about this situation - may I request that you create some sort of confirmation dialog that asks me if I'm sure I want to delete issue XXX-12345? That would probably have prevented me from deleting the wrong issue (I wanted to delete one that I'd just created, not the one I actually deleted).

I mean, I'm a Jira admin and a power user, but I'm every bit as human as everyone else, and (obviously) I make mistakes.

[Joe Pitt]

To me this boils down to a difference of philosophy. I, and many other including probably Atlassian, consider any tracking tool a system of record and you shouldn't delete from a system of record. PERIOD. The fact the forum is full of people wanting to recover issues shows people are messing up all the time when given the permission to delete.  

[Steve Sobol]

This choice shouldn't be a choice that is made for us. We should have the ultimate say.

And if we're going to continue to have a delete option, confirmation is essential. I would hope you're not going to try to defend the decision *not* to confirm deletions.