How do I add an existing story to an epic?

[Thomas B · Accepted solution]

Hey Jon,

Go to the story that you wish to add to the epic and follow these steps:

1. Edit > Epic Link > Click the drop down and select the Epic Link that matches what you want
2. If Epic Link is not showing on the Configured Fields, follow these steps:
   1. Edit > Configure Fields (top right) > Select Epic Link
   2. If Epic Link isn't shown, click "Where is my field?"
   3. Scroll down and find Epic Link
   4. Click on the blue hyperlink that says "....Screen configuration
   5. Login as Admin
   6. Select the Epic Link Field and repeat step 1

I hope you find this helpful!

[Krishna Ghorpade]

Thank you very much. 

[Ryan Lafrance]

what the heck. i don't see any of these fields.

[Dan]

[Vinay Kumar]

Thank You So much for the Information !!

[Andréa Aline de Faria]

It still works! Thank you!

[mhm]

Where is the "Edit" button? I don't see it. 

[Deleted user]

I have to go find the individual Stories and add the Epic to each 😒

Am I the only one who finds it absurd that you can't add an issue to the Epic from the epic detail view? 

[Al Munder]

Agreed.

[MG]

no, there's also me!

[Jody]

Us too!

[Seth Arora]

Yep, same. Quite unimpressive.

[Nicolas Karlinski]

same here - Need to mention: using "classic software project"

[Gunaseelan Ramalingam]

Goto the backlog view, open the epic bar side by side to the user story list, and then drag the stories to the EPIC to map it 

[Ashwini Rao]

Great solution.

[Weeda Lostitmonton]

[Kanban] You can also go to the Board > click on the Issue > you should be able to select/change epic on the top left corner

[Deleted user]

This is usually how I do it today. It's the most manageable way to retroactively populate an Epic.

[Brian Schussler]

This no longer works is JIRA Cloud, the Epic Link field is not displayed because it is blank, and there is no way to display the Epic Link field.

[Vincent Frey]

As of now it is possible: if you extend the Stories Details view (click "Show more") the "Epic link" field is visible and you can change it there.

[Brian Schussler]

I'm on the "View Issue" screen and the Epic Link field isn't present when it is blank.
The Epic Link field is present when it isn't blank.

When I use "Where is my field?", it says: The field 'Epic Link' does not have value for issue XXXXX-##### and will not be displayed on the view issue page. Set value for that field so that it shows up.

I don't know what the Stories Details view is or how to find it.

I also can't edit a blank Epic Link from the List View after I search for issues.

[Laimonas Vainoris]

The lack of functionality of adding issues to Epic via Epics window must have been known for a while for Atlassian, would be interesting to know what is their reasoning of not ever implementing this on classic Jira projects.

[Daniel Vaca]

In Jira Cloud, looks like this can only be done through Bulk Changes. 

[Julia Abrahamsson]

Hi, thanks this worked for me too

[Javier Hidalgo]

This is the only way it worked for me on Jira Cloud!! Thanks!!

[Mike Hladik]

I had the same issue but I could resolve it with most of suggestions. My client is using Jira v9.4.6 and I am not a Jira expert

Steps to link "floating" stories to existing epic:

1. Issue Search
2. Refine query in "navigator"
3. Tools bulk change; select issues > edit > change epic link; select destination epic .... next/confirm

That did the job for me!

[huw_llewellyn]

In the backlog you can open the EPICS side panel and just drag it in

[Giancarlo Davis]

OK. Since this is outdated, found a workaround for Jira Cloud, which was already mentioned, and I can't delete this comment for some weird reason. 

[Jon Roberts]

That's great, thanks.