JQL to find an empty mandatory field?

[Jim Strange]

Hi folks,

I've recently added a mandatory custom field, and then done a bulk update to set it to one of two values, based on another field (a label, which we're finding too error-prone).

The bulk updates worked okay, but there were some exceptions, ie tickets that didn't match the bulk update criteria, and therefore the mandatory field is not set. I want to mop these up.

When I try to use JQL to find these, Jira just tells me there aren't any. Yet I can go through the backlog and pick them out. So what's occurring?

My query is this:

project = TLA and (field != "Option 1" and field != "Option 2") OR field is empty

This only finds records where I've actively set field to a valid value that isn't "Option 1" or "Option 2." It's refusing to match "empty" with "not set." How do I find the records that haven't been captured by the bulk change?

[Mathis Hellensberg]

Hi @Jim Strange 

Are you sure the issues dont have a value? Issues that dont have the field in their view screen might still have a value even though you cant see it on the issue :)

[Jim Strange]

Hi Mathis,

It's a brand new field so the values will have defaulted to Not Set. There are only three possible options for this field and I've tried them all!

[Mathis Hellensberg]

Hmm.. what happens if you pick one out and change the value from None to whatever and then back? Are you able to query them then?