How to copy value from a User Picker (single user) to another User Picker (multiple users) field?
Asked by Siddharth Ramesh:

In our new process we had created an "Operations Lead" single user custom field to document who the point of contact is for defining business expectation. In recent feedback we found out this could be more than one person for a request and have added another field "Operation Lead(s)" to allow for it to be a multiple users. We originally tried to see if we can convert the existing field and that does not seem to be feasible in the Jira Cloud version.

I am now trying to see if I can copy the values from "Operation Lead" field to "Operation Lead(s)" field so that I can remove the old field from the screen views and decommission it.

I have tried bulk edit and tried to do an automation flow but neither of them seem to work.

![Screenshot 2024-08-08 121446.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/340796i2A18948AB6B2D376/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2024-08-08 121446.jpg")


Answers:
author: Bhanu
body: Hi [@Siddharth Ramesh](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5084301)

Automation supports the rule to copy the value from a Single User field to Multi User Field.

Create a Automation Rule for this:

On the Issue Edit Action, You can select the Multi User Field and configure it to copy the value from the Single Select User Field.

comments: author: Siddharth Ramesh
body: What would I do as a trigger action? I want this to run for all my current issues and none of the triggers I have used has managed to do this.


author: Bhanu
body: You can use branching (JQL) component to get the list of issues that you desire to update.


author: Siddharth Ramesh
body: I ended up using a "When: Scheduled" trigger and it worked.

![Screenshot 2024-08-15 164029.jpg](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/342046i58DB5D0F776FA384/image-dimensions/324x298?v=v2 "Screenshot 2024-08-15 164029.jpg")

Thanks for your help


author: Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
body: Hi [@Siddharth Ramesh](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5084301)

you are correct that cannot change the type of a custom field - you'll indeed have to create a new custom field, transfer over the values from the old custom field, and then delete the old custom field.

For copying the values over, I've seen people use Automation rules for this, or do a CSV export, make changes to the CSV file, and re-import it.

Alternatively, if you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, you'll have more options. I'll provide more information below.

Hope this helps,

Best,

Hannes

comments: author: Hannes Obweger - JXL for Jira
body: ... and to expand on my last point: If you're open to solutions from the Atlassian Marketplace, this would be easy to do with the app that my team and I are working on, [JXL for Jira](https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/1224710?hosting=cloud&tab=overview&utm_source=atlassian-community&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=2779816).

JXL is a full-fledged spreadsheet/table view for your issues that allows viewing, inline-editing, sorting, and filtering by all your issue fields, much like you'd do in e.g. Google Sheets or Excel. You can also *bulk edit* your fields, using copy/paste. This makes it very easy to copy values from one column (i.e., field) to another column/field.

This is how it looks in action:

![multi-to-single-user.gif](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/340917i4D0D391A355DC10F/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "multi-to-single-user.gif")

(This is from a multi-user field to a single-user field, but it work the same the other way around.)

You can update any number of issues in one action, so you should be done with your work in no time. I should also add that JXL can do much more than the above: From support for configurable *issue hierarchies* , to *issue grouping* by any issue field(s), *sum-ups* , or *conditional formatting* .

Any questions just let me know!


Tags: jira-service-desk-cloud

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