Moving Issues to other Project causes lost of custom-field values

Benjamin Weinheimer-Erben (mgm-tp)
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March 1, 2016

Hi together,

I have a JIRA 6.1.7.

I have created a new project to merge some other projects.

I like to move all required issues from the old projects to the new one without losing any information. What happens is that when I move issues with custom-fields of the type "Radio Buttons", "Checkboxes" or "Select List", the value of those fields get lost somehow.

The custom-field are available during the move action, but you have to select the value there or you will end up with an empty field.

I have created all schemes including all issues, workflows and custom-fields I need. At this point I have simply added all custom fields to the Field Configurations and Field Configuration Scheme. Also I have added the target project to the scopes of all custom fields.
In my test environment this leads to the fact, that all values will be moved with the given issue.

But in my productive system I will still lose the values.

Does anybody have an idea what I could have missed?

Thanks

Benjamin

4 answers

1 accepted

2 votes
Answer accepted
Edgar Oregel November 27, 2018

Explanation:

I had this exact issue. The issue is that the underlying ID that corresponds to the values are different between the configuration schemes of the same custom field, which is why JIRA can't map the field value of your custom field from Project-1 to Project-2. If both projects have their own configuration fields for customfield_11111, the IDs for the values, even if they're the same string value, will be different. 

For example, if i have a configuration scheme of customfield_12345 for Project-1 and Project-2 where both configuration schemes have the same 3 string values of (foo, bar, beep), the foo in Project-1 will have an ID of let's say 55 and foo in Project-2 scheme will have an ID of 56. When moving tickets, JIRA will try to match the ID's, not the string values, resulting in JIRA failing to map the field value and therefore removing it's original value and requiring you to select a new one since to JIRA, foo (id=55) from Project-1 doesn't exist in Project-2. 

Solution:

The solution here is to temporarily use the same configuration scheme for both projects to successfully move the tickets. If Project-1 already had scheme-1, then just add Project-2 to the list of Projects for scheme-1. This will allow you to retain the field values since you're using the same id's for all values. Optionally, after the move, you can then create a scheme-2 with the same values for Project-2, remove Project-2 from scheme-1, and add it to scheme-2.

Jose Solorio November 27, 2018

Thank you for the detailed explanation. Yes, I now see the problem, your explanation helped. In summary, when I go to Configure Custom Field, if I try to move a jira issue from one project which is following one configuration scheme to a project which is following a different configuration scheme, I run into this problem where I need to re-enter the custom field values in the Move Issue screen. I will proceed to do as you suggest which is to have both projects follow the same configuration scheme for that custom field in the Configure Custom Field screen. I tried it and it worked (it is no longer asking me to re-enter the field values when I move the issue)

1 vote
Benjamin Weinheimer-Erben (mgm-tp)
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March 2, 2016

I finally found the solution:
If you move a ticket with sub-task(s) with the normal move option within the issue, you have to choose the values from the list-fields again.

If you perform a bulk-move you can check "Retain" for each value, and if you check it for the given fields the values will be kept.

 

So finally the question is: why is the behaviour different between the two move options?

 

greeting

Benjamin

Edgar Oregel August 7, 2018

I'm having the same issue, but your above statement isn't true for me. I'm trying to bulk move tickets from one project to another. I made sure that the schemes are the same and that the custom fields are included in the create screen, field configurations, and that they have all the same field options (since they're dropdowns), but even after i click retain value, when i arrive to the confirmation page right before I merge, the details of the move state the fields new values to be empty.

Jose Solorio November 26, 2018

I too am having the same issue where whenever I try to move an issue from one project to another, it still asks me to fill in a value for one of our custom fields even though the field is required and present in both project's field configuration schemes. I am not sure if this is a bug. But please, if anyone knows how to get it to not ask users to fill out the field again let us know

0 votes
Benjamin Weinheimer-Erben (mgm-tp)
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March 1, 2016

Hi Vasiliy,

thanks for your suggestion, but this is already the case. The fields are there and could be edited but the value gets lost by moving the issue to another project.

greetings
Benjamin

0 votes
Vasiliy Zverev
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March 1, 2016

Make sure that field configuration schema into new project contains all custom fields from old project.

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