Why do old/closed issues show up first in Jira global search? Can this be adjusted?

[Anne Saunders]

This is far from the first time I've encountered this, but it's finally getting annoying enough to want to change it.

The issues that appear in the global search for Jira are the oldest issues that match my search term. If I go through to the issue navigator view for the search results, they're all in statusCategory 'Done.' The ones in the search image below are all about a year out from their last updates, though some searches produce results that are both 'Done' and 4-5 years old.



There are about 150 open issues that match my search term that are in statusCategory To Do or Doing, so why do they not show up first?

I did find a setting in the Advanced Settings menu (also pictured below) that sorts "issue actions" either in ascending or descending order by default, and I think everyone at my company would prefer the descending option anyway (I know any users who don't like it can still override) but I'm not sure it will do what I want it to re: Global Search.

Is there any way to modify the Global search to ignore Done / old issues? At least to rank them lower? 

We're on the standard plan and not looking to purchase or subscribe to add-ons.

[Anne Saunders · Accepted solution]

The edit was to reinstate the first image, which was lost on publication. 

[Lígia Zanchet]

Hi Anne.

Thank you for the detailed explanation of the issue and also the screenshots.

This is expected from the quick search. As per our official documentation: Find recent issues 
Quick search scours for keywords, which are often first found in the Summary or Description of an issue. To broaden your search results, opt for advanced search.

When searching for a term like "police," the initial matches may not be sorted by the update date.
There is a feature request to improve the quick search accuracy:  JRACLOUD-82485.
I recommend you vote and subscribe to it. 

As a workaround, instead of relying solely on a quick search for specific issues, you can utilize the advanced global search. Simply click "View all issues" at the bottom of the quick search pop-up to access this feature.


Please let me know if that helps. 

[Anne Saunders]

This is interesting information, but it's not what I was looking for.

I want the global ("quick") search to default to issues that are open and recent - honestly, I feel like quick search should sort results (the way I'm aware that I already can with JQL) by issues that are open first, newest first. (statusCategory ASC, created DESC). The whole idea of "quick" search is that it should be quicker, no?

[Lígia Zanchet]

Hi @Anne Saunders  

The quick search is designed to return the recent issues that you worked on/visualized :
Find recent issues  
For a deeper search, it is recommended to use the advanced global search.
I understand that having the results in the ASC order would be preferable, but unfortunately, that's not how it was implemented in that quick search.

I hope this is a bit clearer now. 

[Anne Saunders]

Clear? Yes; Satisfying / nice? Not especially. 

Thanks, I guess.