How to set the Assignee during Import Issues from CSV now that User Names are gone?

[Ericka Samuels]

I import batches of issues frequently from CSV files.  I always set the Assignee = the Atlassian user name.  But this new change has just gotten in my way:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/cloud/blog/2018/06/say-goodbye-to-usernames-in-atlassian-cloud

I can no longer see the user names on the Site Admin.

Does anyone know what I set the Assignee field equal to in the CSV?  Is it the Full Name?  If so, does it have to be in quotes?

[Manon Soubies-Camy · Accepted solution]

Hello @Ericka Samuels,

I've actually just had the same question when importing issues from CSV files. We still can see usernames in the URL: let's say you're looking at your user profile, the URL should be https://yoursitename.atlassian.net/admin/users/view?username=Ericka.Samuels

I've just checked a user created today and he also has username = firstname.lastname, so I guess Atlassian gets the portion of their email address before the "@" character as their username.

Hope this helps,

- Manon

[Ericka Samuels]

@Manon Soubies-Camy  MANY MANY MANY THANKS!!!!

[Manon Soubies-Camy]

Glad it helped! I'm still checking if we can do it any other way, it doesn't seem very user-friendly to check the URL :)

[Matt Doar]

Perhaps the Cloud REST API could be useful?

[Ericka Samuels]

it's being removed from that as well

https://developer.atlassian.com/cloud/jira/platform/api-changes-for-user-privacy-announcement/?_ga=2.254651208.1588718809.1532442008-225527206.1493315734

[Nathan Lamshed]

Thank You @Manon Soubies-Camy You just solved a problem I have been working on for 2hrs!! Using firstname.last name has worked!!

[Josh Varga]

It doesn't seem like this works any more. My user profile link looks like this: https://kanasoftware.jira.com/people/4ad10d7053b99a2a7cd299bb

(I manipulated the hex string for privacy). 

For the heck of it, I tried putting in that hex string as my username in the import mapping, and that didn't work either.

[Manon Soubies-Camy]

Hi @Josh Varga,

I've reached out to Atlassian support team and the only way to get the usernames now is to export users and check their usernames on the CSV file. It's annoying to have to do an extra step to get usernames, but at least we're able to retrieve this data.

[Josh Varga]

@Manon Soubies-Camy that's indeed annoying and unfortunate. I wasn't sure if I'd get any traction here so I created a new question on this. Someone told me that in JIRA Cloud usernames are usually the part of the email before the @ symbol. In this case, it worked for me! 

[Manon Soubies-Camy]

Yep, that's also what I assumed - glad you worked it out! I reached out to Atlassian because I wasn't sure how to check usernames for old users (i.e., users created when they were still able to changer their own username). Now we're all set :)

[Matt_Sielski]

Update: Nevermind, this works by mapping to the prefix of the email address of the user.  It seemed to default to atlassian.net addresses, but if I import from the main menu, not a project, I have the option to specify my own suffix.

When I export our Jira users to CSV there is no username field.  There are fields: id, full_name, and email.  I have tried all three of these values and the mapping fails.  I see no way to find user names which can be used in issue import.

[Matthias Brix]

For some of our accounts I'm capable to find the appropriate user ID for a CSV import by usage of the auto-complete of the JIRA issue search: Typing into the search field "Assignee =" then starting to type a well-know user name will show a drop-down with accounts. Clicking on the desired user will add a user ID into the search field. This user ID worked in many cases, but not all.

Finally JIRA support solved my issue: In JIRA Cloud I was capable to access "CSV Import" by the three dots menu at the "Advanced search for issues" page without the required admin privileges (looks like a bug). After I got the admin privileges for my project and used the correct import page (accessible via 'Jira Settings' / 'System' / 'External System Import') I was capable to import and assign issues by usage of the team member mail addresses. 

[Qasim Naseer]

@Matt_Sielski   It worked when I used Email Address instead of Name.

[Avash Chitrakar]

email address works!

[Evan Yoho]

I can confirm that mapping to the full email address works.

I got the full address from the User Management section of the Admin page, then mapped a spreadsheet value to it in the 'Jira Settings' / 'System' / 'External System Import' tool. 

Thanks everyone for the help!

[Mara Finkelstein]

Hi Evan, I would like to know more about your solution. To confirm, when you did a bulk upload assignee or reporter was just the team members email?

[Evan Yoho]

@Mara Finkelstein As you may be aware, there are two bulk import tools: an admin and a non-admin tool. The admin tool lets you import Assignee and Reporter, but the non-admin tool only lets you import Assignee.

Either way, when you are mapping one of your file columns to the Jira assignee/reporter field, make sure "Map field value" is checked. Then on the Map Values page, you need to map your file values to team members' full email addresses (like user@example.com). You can find the full email addresses on the User Management section of the Admin page. 

Alternatively use the users' full email addresses in your input file and you won't need to map values. 

[Mara Finkelstein]

@Evan Yoho Thanks! Just clarifying.So if I import from Settings > System > External System Import, is that the admin tool?

Also, instead of Assignee /Reporter you can place the team members email?

[Evan Yoho]

@Mara Finkelstein Yes, that is the admin tool. And you can use team members email addresses in the Assignee/Reporter columns of your input file, then map those columns to the Assignee/Reporter fields in Jira. As long as the column values match the email addresses of your Jira users exactly, the bulk importer should be able to import correctly. 

[Clara Matheus]

Using email addresses works for me during csv import for the Assignee field, but not for a custom multi-line field "contact persons". Neither does the user ID. Which other way could I use to specify users in custom fields during csv import?

[Andrew Robinson]

@Clara Matheus  You could try adding multiple columns for Contact Persons and adding 1 name to each column. That's how components works with multiples so it may work with Contact Persons also? I'm guessing you worked it out by now though :)

[Anuj Verma]

Adding user id in place of username works.. :) 

[Mykenna Cepek]

Even if you're importing to a different instance?

[Lakshmi Priya]

Email Id works for me .. And thats easier than user Id I suppose.. 

[vmunisamy]

Foy my case I had to use the user ID in the csv, as the username was not working. With the userID it was successful. Got the userID from clicking on the user and in the url can see the id like so : 

https://test.atlassian.net/jira/software/projects/OO/boards/1/backlog?assignee=6097w3b15d67f200798bcd62

[Wim de Jonge]

This also works for me. Thanks.

Is there any way to extract in all user ID`s?

[Jawann Swislow]

User ID is included when you use Export users from User management > Users.