Do not notify on changes to a custom field

[rr]

We've configured automation to update the value of a specific field each day, however it sends emails to countless people each time it does so as the field is getting updated.

How can I either ignore changes to this field, or changes done by this specific user from triggering email notifications?

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi @rr  - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

Where are the emails coming from? I assume not Automation For Jira. I also assume they are coming as a part of the Notification Scheme attached to the project. You probably want to modify that to only send to Watchers when an issue is updated. And also modify the global setup to not add a user as a watcher once the simply interact with the issue. 

[rr]

So basically we created a field that gets set when an issue is transitioned. That in itself is fine, then once a day it recalculates a second field of `Days in Status` as management wanted to know how long an issue had been in a status at a glance. If there is a better way to do that I will happily change.

The problem is when the update runs across 1100 opened issues, even though it is limited to just the watchers they still receive a lot of emails, especially our QA team. So when the `Days in Status` field is changed we don't want it to be notified to the watchers, either that or ignore any changes done by the user we configured to make these changes.

[John Funk]

Well, I guess the answer is that you can't have it both ways. You can't say I want the watchers to be notified when fields are updated. And you then you have automation update the field and then you say but I don't want the watcher to be notified. 

The problem is with the watchers. I have turned off sending the notifications to them in the Notification scheme. If the user wants to watch an issue they can do it through an activity stream on a dashboard. 

[rr]

Okay thanks for that.

[Richard Mann]

@johnfunk

That reply is not helpful. I absolutely can want it both ways and I am entirely entitled to do so since we PAY for the platform. Meta-data that people don't need to know about is a pretty common use-case in my experience.

In another thread, it was suggested that we use an email plugin and disable the Jira core email notifications completely, which is as far as I'm aware the only current solution.

Email This, was suggested.

[johnfunk]

Just a heads up, @johnfunk isn't tagging who you think it is ;) Apparently there are a few of us. 

[John Funk]

Cool, another John Funk!!!  Where do you live? 

[johnfunk]

Right in the middle of Canada. :)

[John Funk]

Great! I am in Nashville, TN

[Hank]

@rr @John Funk   I'm inplmenting something very similar. A scheduled Job that updates a lot of issues, but I don't want to send notifications.  Here's what worked for me...

Update the Scheduled Automation to include these steps

1. Create a Variable and assign the current watchlist. Make sure you use the Object reference and not the Properties: {{issue.watchers}}

2. Remove All the current Watchers

3. Save the Variable value from step 1 to a new Comment (not required, but its a backup)

4. Make what ever edits you need to the issue

5. Restore/Assign the Watch List using the Object list stored in the Variable from Step 1.

[John Funk]

Very ingenious!  :-)

[Azamat Dalabayev]

The greatest solution. Worked for me.

Just changed the Audit to Comment section - made it thru "Add value to Audit Log"

Thanks, @Hank !

[Hank]

yw, have been running variations on this solution since Feb-2021 - no issues.

It generates an error when a Watcher no longer is an employee or no longer has a Jira Account, but otherwise restores all other Watchers.

To be safe, I run a separate job that removes known invalid Watchers from all issues.

[Azamat Dalabayev]

Niiiice)) thx for one more idea for automation from your experience.

[Susan Cain]

This was 3 1/2 years ago.  Is there an enhancement to solve for this or is Hank's solution still the best option?