How do I merge (not linked) two issues in Jira Service Desk?

[TEST USER - SBO]

When receiving email in JIRA Service Desk we often get different mails belonging to the same incident.  We can of course link the tickets but we (and the customer) loose the history in the "main" ticket.  As a workaround, we copy the information to the main ticket and delete the new ticket afterwards.   Is it possible to merge two tickets?  

[Dave_Sheehan]

This is still a glaring omission.   Please consider ticket merge feature for next release.

[Edo G]

Please upvote this feature!

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JSDCLOUD-4685?_ga=2.208442266.907910224.1583664943-1217941112.1580647630&error=login_required&error_description=Login+required&state=f1366d9b-0e71-4c6a-b060-0cc23728c743

[mararn1618 _secretbakery_io_]

Sorry to say that this is not possible today. What you can do is:

1. Vote for the feature in all open tickets: JSDCLOUD-4685, JRACLOUD-32202 , JRACLOUD-10015 and JRACLOUD-3592.
2. Vote for both JSM and JIRA tickets, since all of this increases the chance that Atlassian ships this feature.
3. Prevent duplicates in the first place (e.g. in ITSM/JSD for Email duplicates use Customer Organizations , or DEV-Teams/JIRA my free plugin)
4. Try Scripts: Autodupes (with ScriptRunner), or this (originally written for Opsgenie, so may need to adapt)
5. Merge manually
6. Merge using an app like Duplicate AI, which automatically finds duplicates and allows  custom merging (configure what to do on field level) and one-click merging (templates for various scenarios) (disclaimer: I own this app. :-))
   
   

[Mike]

We switched over from Teamwork Desk (for some reason) but starting to regret the decision. I could not possibly imagine why this feature is not included, other than to bolster 3rd party app sales.

Bring this feature to Jira cloud or we're going back to Teamwork Desk. Seems this feature is integral for others too.

[David Willson]

Given Jira's origin it's not surprising. In my ops world we like to merge tickets, but from the developer world of jira you don't get 50 tickets for the same issue. 

The question becomes WHY do you get so many duplicates. There is a strong argument for not having Nagios or other automated systems make tickets. Why create that problem willingly. As log as your on call is alerted they can put in a nice clean ticket that has nicely formatted details and a clean clear description. (nobody reads the massive merged tickets anyway generally speaking merging is just a coping mechanism)

If the outage is because phones are down and all users are sending in tickets, that's super annoying to have to link and close.

Remember to be careful just adding plugins for all things, plugins come with a tax - you need to update them, they need to be compatible with jira and all other plugins potentially, and you get support from the plugin vendor. I always caution careful consideration of adding them.

[Raj Vora]

Hi!  As a workaround to not having a merge capability, is it possible to make one of the issues read-only. 

For example, let's say I have two duplicate issues: A and B.

I manually migrate all the information from B to A.  I then add a comment in Issue B directing users to add information about this problem in Issue A from now on.  I can even add a link indicating the Issue B is a duplicate of Issue A.  Then make Issue B read-only.

I am aware that there is a way to make an issue read-only based on transition conditions in a customized work flow:

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/Making-a-closed-issue-read-only/qaq-p/365063

But I am looking for a way to do this for a particular issue.  Thanks.

[Walter Buggenhout]

Hi Steen,

"Merging" tickets is not really possible.

The usual way of solving this would be to decide which ticket will be your main ticket, link the other ones to it (with a link type duplicates), close the duplicate tickets and maybe indicate 'Duplicate' as a resolution.

If you are talking JIRA Service Desk, this will introduce a visibility issue for the customer who has created one of the duplicate tickets. So you may want to reference the reporters of those duplicate to the main ticket, where they should be added as a request participant in order to see the ticket.

[Pedro Cabrita]

It is very "sad" that we have to do all that work to merge two tickets when that is a handicap of the platform.

At least, should exist an option to add all reporters as watchers in the "main" ticket automatically. 

In my case, if two different people respond to the same email, Service Desk open two tickets and we have to "ignore" one of the emails, or just have two parallel tracks (not an option).

Thank you for your reply Walter.

[Forrest Aldrich]

I share similar frustrations and concerns.   But, you can find a plugin-in from the marketplace that will merge tickets (go figure).   In our organization, I have identified a few "basic features" that are entirely missing from the base product which I feel should be there, including a ticket merge feature.    These minor missing features serve to enhance the Atlassian Marketplace, but really sells customers short in the sense of having to purchase yet more software for basic functionality that we would find in competing products.

[Jeff Castle]

Hi Forrest - what's the name of the plugin you mentioned that allows for a merge function for tickets?

Thanks in advance!

[Benn Gehman]

Would guess this one: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/plugins/com.plugins4people.merge.issue-merge/server/overview

[Terry Mundy]

Can't merge?  REALLY? Spiceworks had this capability in 2007 and it was free help desk software.

[Matt Talaga]

I agree.  We are looking to use Jira Service Desk, but I'm questioning it right now as it looks like I can't merge tickets, which is huge for us.

And we are using the Cloud version, so that marketplace solution does not work for us.

[Kate Pawlak _Appsvio_]

Hi @Matt Talaga ,

We've recently released a cloud version of Issue Merger for Jira.

Cheers,

Sophie

[OpenUru_org]

@Kate Pawlak _Appsvio_ Does it come included with JIRA, or is there an extra fee beyond the JIRA licence?

For reference see other posts in thread.  We want Atlassian to include and support a feature that should already be built-in and not depend on 3rd party products and cost us more.

[Kim Johansen]

I really cant understand this is not a function in Jira yet. This might be a gamechanger to our consider of going for Jira or not. Any other small to major systems, have a merge ticket, issue or what else option.

I really have no words why there is not a merge function. I do not ever gona pay a 3th party plugin for somethign as simple as Merging!

[Miguel Da Costa]

So issue has been around for 3 years + and Jira still hasn't seen it fit to add a Merging feature? (Even just for the service desk) 

What is the recommended Plugin's to Merge tickets (I'm assuming this will cost extra, but would like to know about ones that you are actually using.) 

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

Hi @Miguel Da Costa and welcome to the community!

As mentioned above our cloud app Merge Agent for Jira is able to merge information from two or more Jira issues. If you download the free trial you can test the complete feature set of our app for 30 days.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with us at support@codefortynine.com if you have questions or feedback. Usually we reply within one working day.

[OpenUru_org]

@Miguel Da Costa The issue hasn't been around for "3 years."  It's been around for 16 YEARS!

See issue JRACLOUD-3592, created 16/Apr/2004 12:21 PM.

https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-3592

The Atlassian Update: 29th January 2018 on that issue was a direct result of my using their direct feedback contact system to complain about this issue languishing for more than a decade.  Atlassians response that they can't justify the cost, even over a period of more than a decade to get it done, is laughable.

@Marlene Kegel - codefortynine Atlassian customer feel that they should not need to pay more for a feature already built in to every other major (and minor) issue tracking and support system (e.g., Zendesk).

The unstated reason appears obvious: Because Atlassian doesn't want to step on the toes of a 3rd-party product making profit off the missing feature, Atlassian chooses to allow its customers to pay more for a product that by all rights should be included.  If you believe we should use the 3rd-party product to overcome JIRA's deficiency, great, subsidize it so your customers can still get it included at no cost, or Atlassian should buy it outright and integrate the agent into JIRA.

[Marios Chrysovergis]

the problem is that the add on is terrible. it mess up the things rather providing something useful. I really don't understand how many votes it needs to take to get some attention.

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

Hey @Marios Chrysovergis ,

I am very sorry that you experienced Merge Agent for Jira as a "terrible" add on.

I understand that for your use case our app wasn't providing a solution. And maybe that's also the case for other customers. 

We're still working on updates for Merge Agent. Maybe it's possible to enhance it, for you and for other customers. It would be great if you could share your feedback with us via our support.

Thank you, @Marios Chrysovergis !

[OpenUru_org]

Frankly, @Marlene Kegel - codefortynine, although codefortynine is offering something missing, it should be obvious, especially to Atlassian, that we all very much more want Atlassian to stop making its customers pay more for a 3rd-party product that by all rights should be included, and finally implement it after 16 YEARS of user demand for a feature already built into other major (and minor) issue trackers.
See: https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-3592

[Marlene Kegel -codefortynine-]

A few months ago we released Merge Agent for Jira and Jira Service Desk cloud.

With our app you can easily merge descriptions, comments and further content into other issues.  It's also possible to merge several tickets at once. 

Since the focus of Merge Agent for Jira is especially on Jira Service Desk I'm sure it can help to solve your problem.

Don't hesitate to get in touch with us if you have any feedback. 

[Emiliano Schreiner]

More money? nooooo

[Yvonne Markgraf]

We only have 2 users and just want our automatic Product Feedback emails that get responses in email not to spin up a new Jira Service Desk Issue for every single email reply. Is there a free version of Merge Agent or some other free way to do this in Jira Service Desk?

[Marlene Kegel -codefortynine-]

Hi Yvonne,

You can download the free trial of Merge Agent and check out the full feature set for a few weeks without paying for it.