You cannot perform this operation on a draft workflow.

[Florence M]

I try to add a transition to a workflow (new) and this error message appears. What do i do?

[Jovan Duric · Accepted solution]

Hello all,

I had the same problem, but when I switched to the New Workflow Editor, it worked without any issues.

BR o/

[Pedro Oliveira]

Hi Jovan, how did you switch to the the new editor?

[MTurner]

Same question. I can't currently see a way to switch over.

[Pedro Oliveira]

Hi @MTurner I found that you have a "Switch editor" select box on the right side of workflow configuration. Then you can select it.  

[Tom Woodling]

This really needs to be added as the recommended answer and upvoted as much as possible!  It totally works!

[Carsten Schäfer]

Only Team managed? I do not see any option to switch to a new editor in Company managed WF editor.....guide me!

[Jiří Podroužek]

[Carsten Schäfer]

Are we talking about Cloud or DC? I talk about CLOUD....I see nothing and I am admin:

I checked the release cycle and while there are several mentions of WF updates, none talk about NEW editing experience....I am a bit lost

[Ollie Guan · Accepted solution]

Hi @Florence M ,

Pls refer to this KB from atlassian team.

https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-articles/Editing-a-workflow-when-it-shows-You-cannot-perform-this/ba-p/1854392

[Hope Man]

This is truly horrible UX.

Can't believe it is still like this.

[John Rotondo]

Here's to Atlassian. Writing hot garbage since 2002.

[Hope Man]

I have not tried it myself, but there seems to be a workaround now by switching to the new workflow editor.

See comment: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-Software-questions/Re-You-cannot-perform-this-operation-on-a-draft-workflow/qaq-p/2645062/comment-id/932653#M932653

[Corey.Hampton]

This is the dumbest thing ever. I can't believe how horrible Jira and Confluence have become.

[Deleted user]

100

[John Funk]

There is a team working on this with Atlassian. This is not new for Cloud, it has been there since the beginning. 

[Jackie hardy]

I am tasked today with modifying an existing workflow that has been in use for years. In the past I was able to simply click the three dots next to my active workflow and edit. I am using the cloud version. Now I am being instructed to make a copy and then associate my new workflow to the project. I am so apprehensive because this is not what I have done in the past and hundreds of requests will need to be reassigned to this new workflow, such a risk. Is this truly the only solution?

[Jackie hardy]

Good day, just a follow-up. Making a copy of my current active workflow was truly the only solution for me. It worked, no more cause for apprehension. There are some cases where mods are allowed w/out having to go through this process. But in my case, I was adding new transitions and modifying existing ones so that's why I had to make a copy. No worries, it worked.

[MTurner]

Is there still no solution to this? By making a copy of the workflow in order to be able to edit it, I then can't set all the approval steps as this is only possible in an active workflow. Also how do you then rename workflows? Now have copy of a copy of a copy etc... 

[csaba_kovacs]

Absolute retardation.

[Benjamin Mueller]

In my eyes it makes no sense. In the DC version it is possible. Why do we have the Draft mode?

[Thomas Nabelek]

Agreed. What is the purpose of the draft mode? Allow us to modify workflows that are in use on the fly.

[Rim Ben Rejab]

I have been trying to edit the workflow 2 hours, searched every document, watched every youtube video, AND I AM taking an exam soon while following training videos presented by atlassian! nothing matches with the course! I hope they can at least change the content for their training because for newbies like me, it is very frustrating!

in the course it is said that a project admin can delete a status if not used by an issue, can can change a status name, can create a new status, can edit the description.. on an active workflow.

BUT I am a Jira admin and I can't perform any of these!

[John Funk]

Hi Florence,

You need to copy the current workflow, make your changes in the copied inactive one and save it. 

Then you need to add your new workflow to the same/current workflow scheme to replace the active one. But sure to publish it. 

[Deleted user]

This is STILL super annoying and I'm a consultant trying to teach Jira to customers. They get mad at things like this and want to keep their old systems. I just nod and agree that Atlassian may be crap and profoundly inept at UX design but it's the best crap available right now. I'm tired of making excuses and trying to make light of how shit this software is.

[Ryan Chapman]

Is there any rational explanation for this? I just made this state and created a transition in. Now I want to edit and add a transition out. What is the possible reason for disabling this?

[Hope Man]

My guess is that it was prone to causing errors on Server and so they removed/disabled it in the Cloud, but then prioritized other things for development instead of working on a replacement.

[Kris Bravo]

Please tell me you're joking.

[Ryan Gill]

I can't believe this is a thing. What an unbelievably terrible workflow editing experience! Please fix this as soon as possible.

[Brad]

WTF! what a crappy UX for a billion dollar company

[Andrey Ivanov]

"There is a team working on this with Atlassian. This is not new for Cloud, it has been there since the beginning."

Unfortunately I cannot agree with this.
Until very recently, I was able to modify the very same workflow I have tried to modify today, when I got this absolutely senseless message: "You cannot perform this operation on a draft workflow".Wow, on what workflow can I perform an operation of adding a transition? On a working non-draft one?
Fortunately, I used the advice from this page and switched to the new editor. The new editor was able to add the new transition without any issue.
Then, I saved my workflow and switched back to the old editor, because the new one is a total UI/UX disaster.
And I had a real trouble even posting this comment. UI/UX disaster here, too...

[John Funk]

It depends on what you are doing when you modify the workflow as to whether you have to do the copy or not.

[Andrey Ivanov]

That's what I (and many other here) would mark as a part of the aforementioned UI/UX disaster.

[Andrey Ivanov]

And I was not speaking of copying and not copying the workflow as you can just see.

[John Funk]

EVERYTHING is a disaster, so much drama. Jira workflows provide a powerful and customizable tool. It's the best there is for the price. Maybe best, period. I know you disagree, and that's fine. But it is certainly not a disaster. 

[Andrey Ivanov]

The new editor compared to the old one is.

The old one had some limitations, but it at least looked neat and clear.

The new old is like returning back to my 2007.

It even spoiled the layout of my workflows where the placement of statuses and transitions got completely scrambled. What's worse when I've switched back to the old editor, the workflow layout remained half-broken — part of the correct layout scheme was back there and part was not. It was a mess and instead of doing the new tasks, I had to restore the correct positioning.

You see, nor my boss neither myself, do not like the workflow having like 10 statuses and twice as much transitions to be intermingled as a spaghetti.

PS By the way, not everything is a disaster. Only the new Jira editor and some part of cryptic errors and behaviours when editing the workflows in the old one.
Plus a bunch of critical feature requests which Atlassian has up voted and alive for, like, 7 or 10 years and still has no implementation. Other stuff is like, OK.

[John Funk]

Understood - it can certainly be improved. I hope you are submitting support tickets to Atlassian with those comments and problems you are running into. That's the best way for them to get addressed and hopefully fixed. 

The new editor still has a ways to go for sure until it is capable of doing the things the old one does. But scrambling the layout of statuses and transitions is definitely something you should report!!

[Jackie hardy]

I opted to not switch editors. The instructions were to make a copy so I made a copy and had no issues. Hope this helps someone. Have a great day and be kind to yourselves and each other.

[Andrey Ivanov]

Sure. Actually, this opinion must be expressed not in the questions section, but in the feature requests. Anyway they will redirect similar complaints from the support ticket there. You're right, thanks for your intention to help. I will find a bug report related to this and upvote it. Have a great day.

[John Funk]

Perfect! Thanks for caring enough to do that!

[Sari Kachorovsky]

1 more vote for allowing admins to edit workflows!

But this is wired thing, cause I definitely had the ability to update for an existing workflow (active) the transitions, remove or add without the need to copy the workflow. Only deleting statuses required to copy, and suddenly I can't edit even transitions. Any idea why? The only thing I can think of is that I removed my Jira Service Management app, could it be the reason?

@Bill Sheboy maybe you know?

[Andy Baeck]

2024 and still the same.

[Sussi Åström]

Atlassian, please fix this ASAP.  Last fall I was still able to edit a draft, which was great, but now having to create a copy, just to add a new transition is absolute BS. I know you guys can do better, so let's see that happen.

[myoussef]

It's almost 2024 and it's still like this! Unreal.
Jira and Confluence are the worst software I've ever had to deal with.

[Troy Parish]

+1 on the feedback here on page. I'm a huge Jira advocate, but baffled that this feature works in such a backwards way.

Is there a fix roadmapped for this? I'd suggest:

"As a Jira admin, I'd like to be able to directly edit then publish drafts to active workflows on company-managed projects"

[jesse.aldrich]

2023 — this is still awful

[Jennifer Bader]

Experiencing this issue. And there's no real explanation as to why it can't "perform this operation."

I updated the workflow in the new workflow editor and it works. No explanation as to the difference in functionality.

[John Funk]

Hi @Jennifer Bader  - Typically it is because the status has no outflow from it or if you are trying to delete a status from the workflow. 

[Jennifer Bader]

Can we just scrub the workflows feature and start over? I keep trying to learn how to work with them and it's difficult to understand what it needs from me to function.

[John Funk]

It's really not that difficult. I imagine 90% of the time you can edit it without getting that message. And if you do, just make a copy of the workflow, make your changes and then add it to the workflow scheme. For the power you get with the workflows, that's not a lot of trouble to have to go through. 

[fabian]

Incredibly bad.