Is anyone else getting weird format losses in the Description field on Jira Cloud Issues?

[Chase Ferguson]

I've noticed lately after I create an issue that the description field is somehow converting to non formatted type but not sure when or how.

I'll write description, format some text with the Code format, convert things to headers, bold some text etc.

Then at some unknown point (at least after the item has moved from backlog to in development):

• A header will show in bold/size as Header three it will just be plain text with a h3 preceding it.
• Text formatted as code will just show the {{}} brackets with plain text in the middle.
• Bolded text will be plain and just have the asterisks on both sides.

It's not just how it's rendering on my machine or browser either, our distributed team is all seeing it.

If I look in the history of an issue it makes it look like it's always been written with the non formatted stuff written out.

So for example on a new ticket if I write "Inclusions" and format it as Header 3, the history for the changes in the description field that show the before and after will show "h3. *Inclusions*" on both the before and after.

I did find this request which may be related? We haven't been typing in markdown but rather using the click-able GUI formatting so maybe that is the Wiki method and it was enabled in our old editor and thus won't render correctly in the new one? Or is what we're using the the GUI just the RTE and it's bugging out?

[Bill Sheboy · Accepted solution]

Hi @Chase Ferguson 

Here are some questions to help diagnose this a bit...

Is this happening consistently, for all issues with the markup / formatting?

Is everyone on your team seeing this symptom?

Is this happening for all projects in your Jira instance?

From what you describe, does the formatting change always happen after something else, like the issue transition of status?  If so, that sounds like something else may be doing this.  Have you seen any other changes in the history indicating a description change later that may be "walking over" the saved formatting?

Kind regards,
Bill

[Chase Ferguson]

Hi Bill, Thanks for the reply. I'm going to close this but were were on the right track! I just discovered this is being caused by a third party tool that was returning miss-formatted text via web-hook so I'm going to work with that third party. 

[Marton Lipcsik]

Hi All

I also had this problem in Jira Cloud, here is the solution which worked for me on 27/08/2024. Please note, that Jira Cloud is continuously changing, so the steps you need to make might be different after a time.

Important:

You cannot fix the existing Jira tickets Description field formatting loose with the steps below! Only new Jira tickets - created after you change the settings - Description field formatting will not change when you update the Description field content.

Solution: you need to change Description field renderer from "Default text renderer" to "WIKI Style renderer"

The renderer change has two effects:

1. You can use the formatting options in the Description field already when you create a new Jira ticket. So far you could use the formatting options only when you updated Description field of existing Jira ticket.
2. You can manually write multiline text into Description field or copy formatted text from external resource (linux terminal log, JSON/XML content) into Description field. Once you will update Description field later, the formatting will NOT loose. 

Steps to Change Field Renderer

1. Log in to Jira:
   Ensure you are logged in as a user with the Administer Jira global permission.
2. Navigate to Field Configurations:
   • Go to Issues in the main menu.
   • Under FIELDS, select Field Configurations.
3. Select the Appropriate Field Configuration:
   • Locate the field configuration you want to modify. Click on the Configure link next to it.
4. Find the Field to Change:
   • In the View Field Configuration page, look for the field you want to change the renderer for. This could be a custom field or a system field like Description or Comment.
5. Change the Renderer:
   • In the Actions column next to the field, click on the Render option (or it may be labeled as Edit).
   • You will see a list of available renderers. Select the desired renderer (e.g., Wiki Style Renderer or Default Text Renderer).
6. Save Changes:
   • After selecting the new renderer, click on the Update button to save your changes.

Important Considerations

• Impact on Issues: Changing the renderer affects how the content of the field is displayed but does not alter the underlying data. All issues associated with that field configuration will render differently the next time they are viewed.
• Performance: While changing renderers may slightly impact loading times, especially if switching to a more complex renderer like the Wiki Style Renderer, it typically should not cause significant performance degradation unless many users are accessing issues simultaneously.
• Field Configuration Schemes: If you want the changes to apply only to specific projects, consider creating a new field configuration scheme and associating it with those projects.