How to delete an epic

[Lorenzo Zamorano]

Hi, this question is asked mainly by new users, assuming you do not have a jira administrator etc. The reason why you cannot delete an issue is because you are set as a jira admin but not as a project admin. The simplest way to solve this is:

1. Select your Project
2. Select project settings (Jira left menu transitions, if you don't see it press the back button on the top left.) You should see the bellow screen:
3. 
4. After pressing project settings, scroll down to people
5. You will see that a) you are not added to the project or b) that no one is added to the project in the people portion. Just add yourself and you will see that you are able to delete issues now :) This is a major blocker for many of the actions you would like to take on jira if you did not add yourself during the initial project creation.

[LilaTournier]

amazing! thanks 

[Darrin Katzska]

Extremely helpful! Thanks for posting this!

[Todd Empcke]

There is no 'Delete' option under the '...' menu ..

[Daphne]

same

[Andy - PTC Redundant]

@Daphne / @Todd Empcke : Are you Project Admins...? 

[Marcus Silveira]

Hi Nel,

In order to delete an Epic, you can simply access the Issue screen itself and go to More > Delete.

Please note this will remove on the Epic itself and none of the issues associated to it.

Hope this helps.

[Venkata Brahmanandarao Nelluri]

Thank you MarcusSilveria. 

[utsav.chatterjee]

Can I get a screenshot on the same?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I don't think a screenshot of a ... menu on an issue view is going to tell you much.

[Madhu Kiran Yalamanchili]

To Delete a JIRA issue, one should have Issue Delete permission. If you are project administrator, refer permission scheme associated to your project. If not contact your Jira-Administrator.

[Abhishek Sharma]

The best answer is Project-->Project setting-- > People--> Add your profile (Make sure you are reporter of the issues/task/epic/user story).

[Deleted user]

I have similar issues, and cannot delete Issues or Epics when I am in a specific schema.
I believe other projects have allowed me to use the Delete option on the issues.  I believe this is by design. I am an administrator and can see the Delete Issues permissions. 

[Deleted user]

I have read over all the comments and previous instructions and have been able to delete Issues before, but again, some projects I must hit 'Done' on an issue to delete it, which is not something we'd like to have, due to it still appearing in the history of the project.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Forget about boards and whatever you mean by "schema".  Pick an Epic that you want to delete and go look at it.  If you do not get the delete option in the tools menu, then go look at the project administration settings.  Look at the permission scheme and make sure you have "delete issue".

If you do have delete issue rights, then go look at the workflow.  The only other thing past the permission scheme that blocks delete is a workflow property on the current status of the issue - check for that.

[Andy - PTC Redundant]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- : This is the perfect answer and I successfully followed it to the T

And just to support it further, by 'looking at it' what is meant is click on the JIRA issue number.

E.g.: the Epic "Mistake" in project Example has issue number EX-1. Click on that!

[John Gill]

I had to set myself as the admin for a project. Why an entire site admin that created the Jira account in the first place as to then go add themselves as an project admin, then they can delete an epic is BEYOND ME!!! 

Thanks for the response Nic. to bad this even needs to be addressed! 

[pernelroberts]

I'm grateful for this solution, but I'm also in full agreement with John's sentiment regarding the bewilderment of being an admin and then having to give oneself administrator rights.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

But that's wrong - he was not an admin who had to give himself admin rights.  He was an admin who had to give himself project rights, specifically "delete issue" to allow them to delete.

This model is not going to change as far as I can tell - admin rights are admin rights, project rights are project rights.  They're separate things.

[Jason]

no delete in the 3 dot menu. Screen Shot 2017-02-13 at 10.08.48 AM.png

Screen Shot 2017-02-13 at 10.08.48 AM.png

[faras]

Hi everyone, 

Another path would be:

On the Epic frame, click on the drop-down arrow next to the name of your epic, select "view epic details". On the rightmost of the screen, there is a button with three dots "...", click on it and select 'Delete'. 

Please let me know if that works for you too.

Thanks.

[Mark Skidmore]

What is the Epic frame? Where is it? There's certainly Epic Link displayed on an issue and I can click next to (right of) an Epic title and see the list of Epics but I'm not seeing "View Epic Details" nor am I seeing the thee dots.

[Mark Skidmore]

I found it. On the Backlog page with VERSIONS and EPICS displayed, on the EPICS frame, the list of epics is displayed. It's here that you click the drop arrow to the right of the epic name, click "View epic details" and when the new page displays, in the upper-right corner, click on the ellipses then click Delete...

[Anatoly Spektor]

It is def not as easy as I thought. 

You need to first use search to find ,it then you need to make sure you have the right permissions (I mean admin permissions). If you are a more visual person, I created a video .

[Cornelio_Montalbo]

To delete an EPIC in Jira. Even you are an administrator, you must add your profile into the project. Following Abhishek, instruction adding your profile into the project. Project-->Project setting-- > People--> Add your profile (account you use to login). 

Then go to Project > (Name of Project), expand EPICS. 

 

Choose the Epic to be deleted, click on the drop down menu in the epic and choose "View epic details". Then click on "meat ball menu" or "three dots more options". 

Click on Delete, when prompted if you are sure click on Delete.

[manafire]

Thank you, appreciate this.   However, it should be noted that currently you can't add people to the project under the Free Plan.  Which means, even if you're the creator of entirely everything, you can't delete your own Epics unless you upgrade.   :/

[Cedar Software Development Company]

I cannot find any button to delete EPIC. I have done the settings correctly. Also, added myself to the project yet the Epic button is not available. 

I am not sure why JIRA team always do funny stupid design like this. One has to spend lots of time searching for little things as if one is looking for daily bread. It is utterly senseless to me.

[Abhishek Sharma]

Are you admin? The best answer is Project-->Project setting-- > People--> Add your profile (Make sure you are a reporter of the issues/task/epic/user story).

[Theo Bakker]

You can change an epic to a story (Using the Move option) and then delete it.

[Roger H]

I changed to story but still don't see the darn delete button! Frustrating.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Please see the comments on the accepted answer (the community board has an outstanding request to "convert useful comment to a useful answer)

[Hanmanraj_Gorla]

The Best answer is goto Issue Navigator for the specific project and it displays all issues in the project.

then goto Tools menu select Bulk change after that choose operattion Delete Issues permanently (which you want to delete epic or task..etc)

Delete those and confirm then acknowledge.

Thank you.

Br,

Hanmandlu Gorla