Issue ID vs Issue Key

[Joe Doherty]

I'm creating a CSV file for importing into JIRA and I noticed I can choose between Issue Key and Issue ID to map values. What is the difference? Are Issue Keys used for standard issues and Issue IDs used for sub-tasks?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

The issue key can change, the ID is immutable. E.g. I create issue ABC-123 with an ID of 10105, and move it to project XYZ, it'll become XYZ-789, but the ID remains 10105

[BenP]

is this still valid with ondemand & clustering?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes.

[Junyouz]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- Is there any method we can get "ABC-123" thru rest api or any other method if the issue moved as XYZ-789? Thanks!

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Yes, if you read an issue (via UI or REST), you'll get the history, where any change of key is recorded.

[Junyouz]

Thanks, the only way is from the history, there is no specific field for returning this?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

No, because it's an uncommon event and not useful for 99.99% of issues.  And it's in the history, so you don't need a field for it.

[Sumit Kumar]

issue keys and ids are automatically generated by Jira during import.

Do not map those values in CSV for new issues unless you want to update some custom fields for existing project issues

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Er, not quite. If you use one of them, it will cause your import to try to treat the CSV as an update on an existing issue, rather than create a new one.

[Sumit Kumar]

I modified my comment. :)

[Lindsey George]

On that note of treating a CSV as an update and on an existing issue rather than creating a new one. I have the issue key correlating to existing tickets and when I upload, I check "map exact field" but it is still creating new tickets. 

Any insights on how I am mapping this incorrectly?

[Pankaj Mehta]

Hi Lindsey ... 

Just wondering was this resolved, if so, how?

Thanks