Custom fields not retaining value on bulk more

[Edgar Oregel]

I'm trying to bulk move issues from one project to another for a customer, but the custom fields aren't retaining their values. I triple checked that the schemes are all the same between the two projects, the fields exist in the create screen, field configurations, and that they have all the same field options as they do in the original project (since they're dropdowns), but when i go to do a bulk move, check the "Retain Value" checkbox, and arrive at the confirmation page, the details state that the new value of the 2 custom fields are empty. 

I already moved one issue over to the new project thinking that the custom field's values will be updated in the other project to their original values after the move, but they didn't. The custom fields both were changed to empty values. 

[Edgar Oregel · Accepted solution]

I figured it out!! Well, you did, @Andy Heinzer. You were right. Since the drop-down fields use unique IDs for the drop-down option values, if i make a new configuration for the same custom field, the values are now going to have new IDs, and therefore cannot retain the value since it doesn't exist in terms of the ID in the new project configuration. 

The solution was to just add the new project to the old project configuration scheme so that it can use the same field value IDs in the background. As i said, when i did this, the custom field no longer appeared in the fields list right before confirming the move, however, I tested it, and the value is retained. I assume that since the field is using the same configuration scheme and therefore the same value IDs, JIRA just decides it doesn't need to show you the field nor the value just like it does with Summary, Issue Type, Description, etc. - those fields aren't in the list either, but yet they are moved.

[Andy Heinzer]

Thanks for pointing out an alternative approach here.  Glad to hear it sounds to be working better now.

[andrés]

@Andy Heinzer What about retaining values from custom fields that are not drop-downs? I can't get paragraph fields to retain their values no matter what I try: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/How-to-retain-custom-field-values-when-moving-issues-to-another/qaq-p/1354055

Thanks 

[Andy Heinzer]

I responded on your other thread about this.  Your case is quite different from this one.  In your case you're using Cloud and next-gen projects, which handle custom fields in a much different manner than classic Jira projects will. I think it's better that we create a support case for your specific problem as it isn't quite the same problem presented by this original post.

[Andy Heinzer]

Could you tell us more about this specific custom field?  I suspect that the custom field in question has a different context for each project.  If this field was a global custom field, OR had the exact same context in both projects, then I don't think this would happen.

However since Jira allows you to create different contexts for custom fields across different projects, it is possible that this destination project uses a context where the field options could be different.

Our documentation on Configuring a custom field explains this in more depth.

Even if there are two different contexts that have the same selectable options for this custom field, I would not expect the process of moving an issue between these two projects to retain this value.  But that is because of the way that Jira is storing that data for fields like this.  When it comes to drop down fields (select fields), there is an id number for each option to identify it outside of the name of the option.   Which is likely why this is happening, the id numbers don't line up, so Jira doesn't know how to treat these values in the new project.

I would recommend trying to follow the steps in this KB to get past this problem: Change Context for an Existing Custom Field Without Losing Old Data

[Edgar Oregel]

It's the same custom field, but each project has its own configuration scheme for that custom field. They're both single-select drop-down fields. I made sure that both configurations have the same value options, but as you said it might be because of the IDs of the values that don't line up. However, I also tested having both projects in the same configuration scheme with to use the same values and value_ids in the background with the same issueTypes, however, when I tried to bulk move issues with this configuration, the custom field was no longer visible and didn't appear in the list of fields being moved to the new project.