Cannot unlock start date custom field in JIRA

[Phil_Dimeski]

Hi there, 

I am trying to add the start date custom field in JIRA but cannot find the option to unlock it? There is no option other than screen in the field configuration section. 

Regards, Phil

[AhmadDanial · Accepted solution]

Hi, Philip.

While there has been a couple of discussions around unlocking custom fields, I would like to understand the purpose of unlocking the custom field in the first place. Can you please share the outcome that you are expecting by unlocking it?

The reason why I am asking is because unlocking custom fields can potentially corrupt the data in JIRA. So, please keep me posted.

[Phil_Dimeski]

I am trying to integration with JIRA and would like the set the start date on my issues so that I can use it in my integration.

Seems that if I enable the screens for the custom field, it appears and come through the API. Is there any reason it's locked then?

Cheers, Phil

[AhmadDanial]

Hi, Philip.

Thank you for the clarification. I am glad to know that you were able to make the field visible on your end through screens.

These fields are locked to prevent accidental changes which can subsequently break the operation of JIRA which includes data loss and corruption. Additionally, the locked custom fields are used by JIRA or one of its plugins and modifying it can be harmful to the instance. I hope that helped to explain the question that you have here.

[Phil_Dimeski]

Hi Amad, thanks for the response. 

One final question I have is regarding the formatting of that start date field in an API response. Is there a reason the format comes in as YYYY-MM-DD as opposed to other time field like created which come in as YYYY-MM-DDThh:mm:ss.sTZD?

Cheers, Phil 

[AhmadDanial]

Hi, Philip.

You are most welcome. The Start Date is defaulted to use the Date Picker field instead of the Date Time Picker field. Can you please confirm on this so that we are on the same page on this?

Please find the screen shot above for reference. Thanks.

[Phil_Dimeski]

Correct it's set to  Date picker. I'm in the same situation with the Due Date field. 

[AhmadDanial]

Hi, Philip.

Gotcha. That explains the reason why the format is set to YYYY-MM-DD since it is specifically meant to store the value of the date only instead of date and time. 

Unless we are getting the value from a date time picker field itself, then the format will come in together with the time as well.

[Carolyn Nelson]

Was Start date (lower case d) always locked?  We added a custom field years ago, called Start Date (upper case d) which we would use with a post function to update the field when the ticket moved to a specific In Progress status.  I was recently asked to add this field to a new project and was surprised to find 2 custom fields with the same name when trying to add it to screens.  That's a no-no and we keep reiterating to our Admins not to create duplicate custom fields -- although it's usually because they want to change the field type.  Anyway, as I said, I don't remember having two fields called Start Date before -- if it's referring to a system field of some sort that is populated internally (hence it being locked), then why is it even showing up in the Custom Field area?  Thanks.

[Jing Liu]

Is there a way to unlock start date?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Not on Cloud, Atlassian don't want you to mess up the configuration for it.  You should not need to unlock it, so the follow-up question here is going to be "why?  What do you want to do that might break it?"

[Sergei Gridnevskii]

My Project Manager wants the Start date to be populated with current date whenever the issue is moved to In Progress state. 

He sees the Start Date on Plans page.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I think you should ask that as a different question.  This conversation is about the field being locked so people can't mess up the configuration of it.