How do you resolve or close an issue in a next-gen project?

Stephen Melrose April 5, 2019

Our team are long time Trello users, and this past week we decided to try using Jira due to some of the benefits it would bring us.

We're using a next-gen project, and so far have everything working how we'd want/expect. We have enabled roadmap, backlog, estimation, and pages.

One thing we just can't seem to work out is how to (in the Trello venacular) "archive" an issue, i.e. "resolve" or simply "close" an issue.

I feel like I'm being really stupid here as I just can't find what I assume is a very simple option. When I click the menu button on an issue I can see the option to delete, but I can't see any options to resolve or close. When I select delete, the dialogue box asks,

You're about to permanently delete this issue, its comments and attachments, and all of its data. If you're not sure, you can resolve or close this issue instead.

Can you even resolve or close issues in a next-gen project? Is there a setting somewhere else to enable this functionality?

19 answers

1 accepted

1 vote
Answer accepted
Charly [DEISER]
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April 7, 2019
Stephen Melrose April 8, 2019

Either the language in the "Delete" dialog is incorrect or this has to be an incoming feature. I must admit, not having the ability to close or resolve issues (i.e. duplicates) is really disappointing.

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Jason Stork
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April 11, 2019

deleted

Jeff Berndt May 22, 2019

Does anyone know if Atlassian is working on letting users Resolve an issue in a NextGen project?

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Dwight Pfundstein May 22, 2019

not sure if it's on the Road Map or not.

But current functionality is to drag the issue that is resolved over to the Done column on the Project Board and the item, is then completed/closed...

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Dan Whitston August 13, 2019

This is disappointing. I'm having to delete tickets rather than closing them, which makes Jira a not-very-useful way of finding tickets. As others have said, it's a weirdly obvious behaviour to have not implemented.

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Dwight Pfundstein August 13, 2019

In the "New Issues View" you can edit an Issue and change the Status to "Done"

Mathias Weber August 14, 2019

Hi Dwight,

can you tell me where exactly that is possible? The new Issue View is activated but where exactly can I change the resolution? The Status I can change but the case is what if something is not Done but won't be done as it is not reproducible or won't be fixed? Thanks for clarifying

Dwight Pfundstein August 14, 2019

If you open the issue, in the top right corner is "Status" you can use the Drop Down and change Status to 'Done"

Mathias Weber August 14, 2019

Hi Dwight, I do not have this option. Just "Done" but I do not want to mark it as done (it is not done, but it is a duplicate or won't fix, etc.", I want to mar it as done and don't have it on my scrum board.

 Screenshot at Aug 14 15-56-02.png

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Dwight Pfundstein August 14, 2019

You can edit it and Delete it....does that work?

Mathias Weber August 15, 2019

yes that works

Mathias Weber August 19, 2019

any idea how I can manage to close an issue and not mark it as done?

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Dwight Pfundstein August 19, 2019

Are you looking for "Closed" but "UnResolved" ??

Not sure how to do that in Nextgen

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Mathias Weber August 19, 2019

correct, that is what I need and I think the person who started this thread meant.

Dwight Pfundstein August 19, 2019

JIRA Classic had this option; we need to request it be put on the RoadMap..

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Mathias Weber August 19, 2019

This has been done already multiple times (for over half a year now), funny that such a commonly used feature is not present.
Thought you might have found a way to do this :)

thanks for your help though (y)

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Sheila Hippert September 30, 2019

I managed to figure out a workaround with the Automation for Jira app. It works with next-gen projects, so I just set up a simple trigger to set the resolution to "Won't Do" and it worked perfectly! :)

I'm using the free version of the app: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1215670/automation-for-jira-cloud-lite

Adam Sigel October 4, 2019

@Sheila Hippert can you share the details of your trigger and workflow please?

Sheila Hippert October 7, 2019

@Adam Sigel Sure. This is for a project our support team uses to track feature requests. We have an issue status for "Won't Do" that needed a "Won't Do" resolution. The automation is simple: 

  • When: Value changes for [Status]
  • If: Status equals [Won't Do]
  • Then: Edit issue fields [Resolution = Won't Do]
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Mathias Weber November 25, 2019

@Sheila Hippert how did you get a Status "Won't Do" - do you have to create a column on the board with that name? Otherwise I cannot find a way to create a status

Elena_Trushnikova March 18, 2020

@Mathias Weber 

 

Status of Resolution "Won't do" you can configure in workflow using post-functions for you transition. 

eren April 22, 2020

@Elena_Trushnikova Could you explain how you do that in JIRA next-gen project, without creating a column??

Thanks!

19 votes
Gary Menzel September 8, 2019

I have to chime in here.  It is ridiculous to think that everything can just be marked as DONE.  There are different types of DONE (as others have mentioned).  Such as "could not replicate", "will not fix" - to name the ones I can think of.  "DONE" is a specific state which is a variation of "CLOSED" - as are the others mentioned.

This really needs to be a feature as I have inherited a backlog that needs this type of treatment and I have been polluting sprints with these to ensure they are at least being tracked in some way.

I like next-gen better than the previous templates but this definitely needs to be fixed.

6 votes
Deleted user January 20, 2020

This is wild. 

I guess I just have to delete everything I want to simply close, since despite a clear suggestion right there in Jira, you actually cannot resolve or even close an issue.

Screen Shot 2020-01-20 at 10.24.52 AM.png

Mathias Weber January 20, 2020

This is insane, I know. They suggest closing it but it is actually impossible to do it. 

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eren April 22, 2020

JIRA needs to get its s*** together. 

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3 votes
Tim Klein February 28, 2020

I seriously wonder why nobody of Atlassian did react so far. This is what I did (New Gen Agile) - adding a "Dropdown" field to the ticket type calling it "Resolution" with the according options like "done", "won't do", "duplicate", etc

its in Project Settings > Issue Types

 

resolution.png

2 votes
Zhanna March 26, 2021

Maybe this is a difference between the standard and the next-gen projects, but based on these two articles, you can add different resolution types:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver073/defining-resolution-field-values-861253253.html

https://www.thinktilt.com/blog/closed-vs-resolved-the-final-stop-on-a-jira-workflow

I simply went to "board settings" (three little dots) --> Columns --> Add Status "Won't Do" to the Column of "Resolved" and that was that:

Untitled 57.png

fabian March 27, 2021

Yesssss

2 votes
fabian May 19, 2020

Please get this done Jira team! - or will not fix? 

:)

2 votes
Graham_Farrugia December 16, 2019

The accepted answer on this thread isn't remotely helpful.

Another workaround we're using

To get around the issue of not being able to 'Close' a ticket as 'Won't do', 'Resolved', 'Duplicate' or other status we've just moved tickets to Done, add an appropriate label such as 'Won't do' and added the reason that explains why as a comment.

Why closing a ticket is important and should be considered on the Roadmap for 2020.

There's plenty of valid reasons as to why you should be able to Close a ticket and makes no sense you can't. You make plans, and then sometimes plans change, perhaps radically and justifiably, but makes no sense to delete all knowledge of their previous plans existence. Good housekeeping of the backlog means keeping it free of things that are not an immediate priority and that you cannot commit to a realistic timeline of when you might come back to it so closing until such time you want to come back to it is really helpful.

2 votes
Jason Stork
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April 11, 2019

@Stephen Melrose The last column of the board is your resolution or done column.  The issues in this column with a checkmark will be removed from the column after 14 days.

Jeff Berndt May 22, 2019

How do you put the checkmark on an issue?

Jason Stork
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May 22, 2019

It happens automatically when the issue is in the done column (The most right column).

Jeff Berndt May 22, 2019

Aha! I didn't see the check because the issue was Flagged. When I removed the Flag, the check appeared.
Thanks!

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Jason Stork
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May 22, 2019

I do believe if an issue is flagged it cannot be marked done and will not disappear.  Now that you have removed the flag, I believe the two-week clock starts now.

Lucy Walton August 9, 2019

I wonder if anyone could help - I am in the process of setting a project up using the Kanban Next Gen board. I understand that "done" tasks will automatically be removed from the board after two weeks if untouched. Please could you let me know if they will also be removed from the board section of the backlog list after two weeks as well? I'm concerned that I will be left with a long list of "done" items on here too. 

Thanks!

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Jason Stork
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October 8, 2019

It will be removed from the board section of the backlog.

1 vote
Marc Schallehn July 2, 2020

Finally found a solution:

In Kanban-Board, if the issue is in the far right column, click on the "..." in the upper right corner of this column. There is another option "Clear Issues" - this will close all Issues in this column.

Евгений Дмитриев June 15, 2021

Thanks!

1 vote
Luis Grangeia June 25, 2020

Please fix this.

1 vote
Timmy June 14, 2020

Please sort this out Jira! :D

1 vote
Michael Richmond May 12, 2020

What is the Atlassian recommended way of handling this in NextGen?

There are plenty of cases where a ticket is closed as "Won't Do" or "Works for Me" and then later on the ticket becomes important because it contains context and relevant data when the underlaying problem gets identified. Deleting the "Closed, Unresolved" ticket rather than keeping in the system for context and background is not a viable approach.

I will look at the "Conclusion" field to see if this can work for my team.

Michael Richmond June 30, 2020

I had no luck in finding the "Conclusion" field in my NextGen or Traditional projects.

 

Closing a ticket to an unresolved state is key to JIra functionality. As a work-around my company has defined an Epic "won't do" and we allocate tickets to this epic. It is a nasty hack that at least allows us to write some filters to hide these tickets.

Ultimately, this breaks most of the Jira functionality around sprint reports and sprint planning. But it seems like Atlassian is no longer interested in making products that serve the needs of the customer.

 

Is it really the case that Atlassian is marking the feature request for a "won't do" conclusion as "won't do"? If so, how is this being reflected in the Jira project for Jira?
(It's meta- all the way down.)

1 vote
Dan Davidson December 6, 2019

Does anyone know when/if this is going to be fixed so that issues can be closed? We can have 20-30 "done" tickets sitting around at any one time and it makes it difficult to see the wood for the trees when managing backlog etc. Waiting 14 days is not a great "solution" and I don't see why there can't be a way to close off manually.

1 vote
Sam August 19, 2019

Screen Shot 2019-08-19 at 12.04.09 PM.png

Cards that sit in the Done column for 14 days will automatically be archived. I don't think this "rule" can be edited to my knowledge. 

1 vote
Dwight Pfundstein May 20, 2019

You drag issues to the  "Done" Column on your board.  When you close your Sprint they are removed the Board...and are "Done"

Afterward, If you run a query against your project with status = "Done" those issues will be retrieved 

Jeff Berndt May 22, 2019

That's great if you're using scrum. 
What happens to "done" issues on a Kanban board? Do they just stay there forever?

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Jason Stork
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May 22, 2019

The issues will be removed from the column after 14 days.  After the two weeks, there will be a link in the bottom of the column that will allow you to view your old issues.

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Deleted user June 4, 2019

Can you set this to be removed after after 7 days?  We are working in Kanban and review weekly 

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Jason Stork
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June 4, 2019

No.  This is a Jira setting.

Iryna June 17, 2019

for some reason tickets in last column on my kanban board aren't being removed after 14 days, any ideas?

Jason Stork
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June 17, 2019

If you have updated them in any way, that resets the 14-day clock.

0 votes
fabian June 15, 2021

I made a horrible discovery :) 

1. I added a new Status to my workflow, so not I have two resolution states in the project: the usual "Done" and a "Won't do" - both result in green color so one would expect they behave the same

2. When you actually set "Won't do" the Issue will remain in the sprint forever, it will remain in the backlog forever and it will remain in the Roadmap forever.... why? Simply because it's not the Last status in the Workflow.... 

Meaningless. 

0 votes
Charles Stuart Edwards April 27, 2020

How is this not resolved for kanban?

0 votes
Mathias Weber February 28, 2020

They introduced a field in NextGen:

image.png 

well since there is no real right management in Jira NextGen I cannot 100% say if that was not introduced by someone in my company. But maybe you can check it out and verify?

Lucas Liu March 10, 2020

I think this is a custom field, actually a good idea before anything official, I copied this field to our project, it will do for now. Thanks for the idea

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Andreas Rath June 1, 2020

@Mathias Weber Where did you find this field? I do not have these in my projects settngs -> Issue Types

0 votes
Dwight Pfundstein June 5, 2019

In the "New Issues View" you can edit an Issue and change the Status to "Done"

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