Jira tickets not showing updated description for a custom field

[Brad Lackey]

I've updated the description of a custom field multiple times, but the most recent updated verbiage is not showing up in our Jira tickets. Am I missing step to force these updates to "publish" somehow?

• Customer Field settings:

• Customer field description within tickets (showing a previous description; latest description not updating)

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Brad,

There is a bug in Jira that won't do the update through the normal process. You need to edit the Field Configuration used by that project and update the Description there. That overrides the standard Description that comes with the field. 

[Brad Lackey]

That did the trick. Thank you!

[Fazila Ashraf]

@Brad Lackey  , apart from the custom field's configuration, do look at the relevant field configuration (from the project's field configuration scheme) and look at he field's description there as well.

the field's description in the field configuration overrides the field's global description value.

[Brad Lackey]

@Fazila Ashraf this worked, thank you! I'm going to accept the other answer since John calls out that is a known bug. 

[Fazila Ashraf]

Hi @Brad Lackey 

Glad it fixed your issue.

I do not see that as a bug though but as a feature.

This behaviour gives me the flexibility to scope different description text to the same field in different project/issue type context.

[Brad Lackey]

Yes, I can understand that. If it's not an actual bug, so be it. I did not submit one for it.

Thanks again!

Brad

[Edie Hovermale]

The Jira field Description does not follow a logical software order of inheritance.

“In software development, the "order of inheritance" refers to the hierarchical structure where a child class inherits properties and methods from its parent class, meaning when searching for a method or attribute, the code will first look in the child class, then move up to the parent class, and so on through the inheritance hierarchy until it finds the desired element; starting with the most specific class (child) and moving to the most general (parent). “

In this case:

Context should be the child as it is more specific and the Field Configuration should be the parent as it applies more broadly, i.e. less specific. As a result, the Context Description should take precedence and override the parent Field Configuration Description. Given that the Context is more specific, its Description should be used if available. If not, the Field Configuration Description should be applied.

At this point, the inheritance is backwards.