Changing workflow causes issues to disappear

jpaugh August 29, 2016

New issues don't show up in either the sprint or the backlog; and neither do existing ones, except for one.I tried creating a new issue directly from the backlog, and it still didn't show up. Instead, it gave a message that it was filtered. As far as I can tell, there are no active filters in the backlog (epic, version, quick filters).

Also, I checked the board filter is project = <Project NAME> ORDER BY Rank ASC, which is correct: In fact, all of my issues show up on the filter page; just not on the board itself.

This happened after I changed the workflow associated with my project (from "simple" to "default"). I thought it would sort itself out by the next sprint, but then when I tried to close the sprint, it said no issues had been resolved, even though there were several completed, which had been attached to the sprint prior to the change.

 

Edit: Based on Nic's input, I'm pretty sure this is caused by the state of my Columns and mapped statuses. When I checked, there were several mapped statuses; however, none of them were from my new workflow; they were all left over from the Software Simplified workflow, which I switched from.

However, there are no unmapped statuses; and when I unmapped the existing ones, they disappeared. If I could remap issue statuses from my current workflow to the board columns, that would be magically delicious.

Re-indexing did not help.

 

Edit: I've recreated my project, and started fresh. It now works; however, I'm leaving the original project intact, so any new solutions can still be tested. (I'd still love to know what went wrong, and have a useful answer here.)

5 answers

9 votes
Tanner Tuttle November 30, 2017

I ran into this same problem and Jira-support helped me out.

 

One cause could be that your Status types need to be assigned to your Kanban Board column. Do this by going to your Kanban Board section of your project, and hit the button in the upper right hand corner with the three dots: select "Board settings"

One the left you'll see section options: choose "Columns"

Now you'll see a graphic version of your Kanban board. Drag all Status-type-boxes from the right most column into the appropriate Kanban column. 

Upon going back to my Kanban Board, everything displayed properly.

Sharon van Leeuwen November 12, 2018

I also ran into this problem, this answer was really helpful!

I thought I lost my scrum board with all the tickets set by sprint. Luckily, this solution brought all the tickets back in the scrum board to the correct sprint. 

thank you all for posting the solution here :)

ijsuhit December 23, 2018

Thanks a lot! That helped :) @Tanner Tuttle

Mattias Haesbrouck February 7, 2019

wauw! 5 minutes of big stress, until I found this solution: Thanks a lot!

Scott Gartenberg March 13, 2019

thank you...

Chaitanya Kiran August 29, 2019

Thank you . Very Helpful. 

Jmattson October 29, 2019

This was a big help - thank you!

Mohamed Abdisalam August 6, 2020

Very helpful post thanks!

ashkarR October 25, 2020

Thanks @Tanner Tuttle , very helpful.

Richa Jindal June 8, 2021

This was so helpful, thanks heaps!! :)

4 votes
Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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August 29, 2016

A board has a filter behind it, quite often "project = X", but they can be more complex.  Check out the board configuration page, the filter will be near the bottom.

Then check out the columns - make sure there are no "unmapped" status.

jpaugh August 29, 2016

Thanks for your reply. The board's filter query is currently project = <Project NAME> ORDER BY Rank ASC, which is correct: in fact, all of my issues show up on the filter page; just not on the board itself.

jpaugh August 29, 2016

I found the columns on the board configuration page, but I'm not sure how to fix it. I do believe this is very much related, however: It says that "Software Simplified Workflow" is unavailable, which happened because I changed the board.

 

There were several statuses mapped; however, they come from the wrong workflow. "TODO" instead of "Open"; "Done" instead of "Resolved/Closed", for example. How do I create new statuses to add to the columns? Thanks!

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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August 29, 2016

Ok, that's good, and the working filter is even better.

Now, you're saying "not on the board" - some more simple questions:

  • What type of board?  Kanban, Scrum or the one in JIRA Core (rather than Software)
  • What columns do you have on the board and how are you mapping the status in them?
Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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August 29, 2016

The board will show you all the status available to the projects the board filter includes.  It's not a case of the wrong workflow, you've included a workflow with those status. 

To create new status, edit the workflows for the project(s) adding the status you need.

jpaugh August 29, 2016

Ok, that makes sense. I am using whatever kind of board the installation wizard set up for me; however, I created a new scrum board for the same project. I can see several statuses when I look at the issue configuration; however, I cannot see these as "unmapped" from the board's columns configuration.

jpaugh August 29, 2016

I have two new boards, a kanban and scrum board, both with the original columns ("TODO", "In Progress", "Done") from the simplified workflow. No statuses show in any of the three. The statuses I'm using come from the default JIRA workflow ("Open", "In Progress", "Resolved", etc). I'd like to set up 4 columns, Open/ReOpened; In progress; Resolved; and Closed, and that's what I did for the original board, before I realized my statuses weren't coming back (and probably were already invalid).

Nic Brough -Adaptavist-
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Community Leaders are connectors, ambassadors, and mentors. On the online community, they serve as thought leaders, product experts, and moderators.
August 30, 2016

Ok, could you look at the "workflow scheme" for the project (I'm assuming there's only one project in there).  Get the list of workflows in use in there (there might only be one, that's fine). 

Now go to the full list of workflows, and for each workflow used in the scheme, nip into it and note all the status.  Now go back to the board and look at the "columns" configuration - the status available there should include all the status on your list. 

If that is correct, then make sure all of them are in columns

Like Sharon van Leeuwen likes this
jpaugh August 30, 2016

I'll look into that sometime tomorrow, and let you know what I find. Thanks for all of your help!

MJ June 18, 2018

I was facing a similar issue and when I went to board settings, I was able to see that I had few statuses that were not mapped and hence the issues disappeared.

When I dragged and dropped the statuses in the correct status they should be in, I was able to see the issues again.

Thank you, Nic!

1 vote
Brent Marinelli July 9, 2019

Hi,  I had a similar situation.

I created a new, workflow, finally complete and customized the way I wanted.  I assigned it to my project and viola, about 50 "Selected For Development" items vanished.  

Did I panic? Perhaps a little. 

The good news is, I discovered, Jira doesn't throw stuff/issues away. 

I went to the board settings and the status was no longer valid.  But the status I created for the new awesome workflow, was listed in the "Unmapped Statuses" column, all the way to the right.  I simply dragged the appropriate status to the correct column and all was right with the universe.

0 votes
Mark July 31, 2019

I had the same problem and read your post.

The problem was that the workflow that I switched the tasks to did not have the same statuses as the original workflow, and the board was using the statuses from the original workflow as filters.

I went to the scrum board filters and added the statuses from my new workflow, and they then appeared again.

0 votes
Christophe March 19, 2019

likely, if your project use the default jira workflow (for all issues) but with another workflow scheme than the default workflow scheme, you can't map the status in the board column configuration. there is no status to map... (we are working with JIRA 7.6)

when you change the workflow scheme of your project with the default workflow scheme, status appear in the board column configuration.

is it a JIRA Bug ?... i dont find anything about this. 

Xavier Burais March 26, 2019

I believe that depends if you use a Jira workflow or the simplified workflow.

You should look these links:

In the first link, it is indicated that:

"If your board is using  Simplified Workflow:

  • Go to the desired board, then click  Board >  Configure.
  • Click the Columns tab.
  • Click the Add Status button at the right of the page.

Note that the Add Status button is only available if you have the Jira 'Project Administrator' permission for this board's project"

Perhaps it would be helpfull for your problem.

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