custom field description not displayed

[Trevor Marshall]

hi, I just changed the name of a custom field we have, then added a description, all by editing it within custom fields. The description refuses to display when I create a new issue. Am I missing something? I have re-indexed.

The field is of type URL Field. JIRA 4.4.4

[MinC · Accepted solution]

Please give it a try to change the description via Administration > Issue Fields > Field Configuration Scheme.

[Trevor Marshall]

That did it, thanks!

[Ibrahim]

I've made a feature request to see if we can make this more intuitive within JIRA.

JRA-40782

The full documentation on custom field description behavior is found here: Configuring a Custom Field.

Adding a snippet of the documentation here as well.

Changing the description of a custom field

Not changing the description in a field configuration means that any changes you make to a custom field's description are not seen.

JIRA allows you to define a description of a custom field, and if the field configuration descriptions are left empty then the original description text will appear when you create or edit an issue, and as help text in the Issue Navigator. However you can also define different description texts in each field configuration and this will override the original field description text.

For example if a custom field "My Field" is defined with a description of "This is my field" and no field configuration changes are made, then the displayed text will be "This is my field" as expected. If field configurations are used and a description "This is my excellent field" is set for the custom field in the field description, then the displayed text will be "This is my excellent field".