Why do only some of my stories appear in my Backlog?

[Ardis Ramey]

When I create a story, there appears to be a 1/3 chance that it will end up visible in my backlog OR on my project's board.

Why do only some stories appear where they should be? I know they exist and are created where and how they ought to be. I can search for them, I can find them linked to other stories and assigned appropriately to their parent Epics. Why are they apparently banned from the backlog?

Every ticket I create, in a project I own, in an instance I'm an admin on, should be visible in my backlog - without fail or exception. What's keeping this from behaving correctly, and how can I fix it?

[Ollie Guan]

Hi @Ardis Ramey ,

The following factors will affect whether Issues are visible in the Backlog. You can check them one by one.

board filters

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-filters/

quick filters

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-quick-filters/

columns

https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/configure-columns/#Enabling-the-Kanban-backlog

[Ardis Ramey]

Hi, Ollie. Thanks for your consideration response.

Obviously I should have clarified that I have already verified that there are NO visible settings causing this. There are no board filters, quick filters, or column settings limiting stories from appearing.

This is a stock Jira implantation with zero configured filters (or other similar settings) keeping existing stories from appearing in the backlog.

[Ollie Guan]

If you can find these two types of issues through JQL, please check whether there are any differences between them, for example, whether the resolution is empty?

[Ardis Ramey]

Great perspective, Ollie. There are no visible fields or statuses that are different between stories that appear and stories that do not appear in the backlog.

The only difference might be that stories created in the backlog or via the "create issue" workflow show up in the backlog, while stories created from within an Epic (via "create child issue") do not show up. But that would be an obvious bug in the system and a tool as robust and universally respected as Jira wouldn't have a bug like that.

It must be something else.

[Ollie Guan]

According to the operation steps you described, I did not encounter the problem that the backlog cannot be hidden. I believe this should not be a defect. Maybe there is still some configuration problem.

By the way, can you reproduce this problem in other projects? For example, try to create a new Project.

[Ardis Ramey]

Yes, I do see this issue across the board (in all of my projects).

The likely reason you don't see this issue (while I do) is that I'm using the free cloud Jira implemention, which is not as feature-rich as the implementation seen in your screenshot.

[Ollie Guan]

I'm not sure because I don't have a Free Plan site.

Also, I want to confirm again

1. Is there an option like the screenshot below?

2. If you link tasks visible in the Backlog to an Epic, are they still visible?

[Ardis Ramey]

Re: 1) Yes, that option does exist but does not change my results.

Re: 2) Issues linked to an Epic and issues not linked to an Epic both appear in the backlog. The only differentiating factor that I can find is whether the issue was created via "create issue" or "create child issue". There is not a way (apparently) to change the visibility after an issue is created.

What I'm looking for is:

1) Better clarity regarding what is causing this behavior.

2) Clear steps for how to remedy this situation for existing issues that do not currently  show up. "Just don't use 'create child issue' duh" is a workaround (which I assume would help with new issues), but certainly doesn't untangle the existing mess of broken issues.

If you can help with either of these, I thank you.