New custom field needs to be initialized with a value for all tickets in a project

[Dan B]

I have a new custom field (single select drop-down) with 3 values, one is the default. It is associated with one project (40k+ tickets), one screen. How would I go about pre-populating the field with the default value for all the issues without having to perform multiple bulk edits or accessing the database?

The documentation states: "Custom fields are always optional fields. This means that you can create a new custom field without requiring existing issues to be changed. The existing issues will contain no value for the new custom field, even if a default value is defined." But this implies that you can also create a new custom field and require existing issues to be changed.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Not quite, the doc is only talking about the initial creation of the field.  You add the new field, it will have no data for any issue.  You can then make it mandatory in the field configuration, and all edits, transitions and "create new issue" processes will require the users to fill in the field.

But you still have the problem that the field will be empty initially.  The only way to fill that in really is some form of bulk edit (avoid the database route.  Always).  For 40k issues, I'd be considering scripting it (script runner plugin or maybe a CSV "update issues" import)

[Dan B]

I figured that was the case but thank you very much for confirming. Quite disappointing. I am sure this is not a rare need.