Trying to close a sprint
Asked by Andrey Ivanov:

When I try to close a sprint I get the error Failed to complete sprint This issue cannot be edited because of its workflow status.


Answers:
author: Trudy Claspill
body: Hello [@Andrey Ivanov](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/5459964)

It is possible for a Property to be set on a workflow status to prevent an issue from being edited while it is in that status. Part of the sprint closure process may be trying to change an issue in such a status.

You will need to examine the status properties in the Workflows used by each issue type in the sprint you are trying to close to find which one is the root of the message.

This page talks about Workflow Properties:

<https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/use-workflow-properties/>

Let us know if you have additional questions on this topic.

comments: author: Andrey Ivanov
body: Hello!  
Thanks for the answer. Can you tell me where this tab is located? Are this transitions in Workflow?


author: Trudy Claspill
body: These properties are set on the Statuses in the workflow, not on the transitions.

How you navigate to the Property settings for a Status within a Workflow depends on the Workflow Editor you are using.

When you edit the workflow, click on the Status lozenge and you may see a pop-up like this with a Properties option. Click on that.

![Screenshot 2024-07-17 at 9.30.03?AM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/336136iD7F00C374DAD72CB/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2024-07-17 at 9.30.03?AM.png")

In the newer workflow editor the view would look like this:

![Screenshot 2024-07-17 at 9.32.28?AM.png](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/336137i3EE79C5C6E03DBEE/image-size/large?v=v2&px=999 "Screenshot 2024-07-17 at 9.32.28?AM.png")


author: Andrey Ivanov
body: Hello! Thanks for the answer, but I don't have any properties in transitions


author: Trudy Claspill
body: Make sure that you check the workflows for all issue types that are included in the sprint.

Also make sure that you double check what issues were included in the sprint. To do that you need to go to the View All Issues page under the Filters menu and search for

sprint=\<the name of the sprint you're trying to close\>

It is possible that an issue from outside the scope of your board got added to the sprint. That is possible in Jira, and if the issue is outside the scope of the board then you would not see that issue when viewing the sprint through the board.

You said the error message is:

Failed to complete sprint This issue cannot be edited because of its workflow status.

Does it specify which issue is causing the problem?


author: Andrey Ivanov
body: Hello! No, it just writes this error


author: Trudy Claspill
body: Did you use the search I recommended to get a complete list of issues in the sprint?

Did you check the Properties for all the Statuses in all the Workflows for all the issue types of the issues in the sprint?


author: Adrian Gardiner
body: I had this issue and using this solution and my findings may help others find a potential cause quicker than I was able to.  

First off, I downloaded the XML of all workflows in use and looked for the property "editable" and sure enough it turned up in one of the workflows. However, initially I discounted the default Jira workflows which wasted my time initially.  

Someone added an Epic into a sprint and then Closed it as all the underlying ticket were complete.  

It isn't standard practice for us to set the Sprint for an Epic as it is the stories within that go into the sprints.  

The reason this causes the problem is by default, Epics use the default Jira "System" workflow and the "Closed" status on this workflow has the property mentioned above.

Being a default Jira "System" workflow means it is not editable.  
So to solve this I had to re-open the Epic, remove the sprint value from the epic and then close the Epic again.  

I was then able to close the sprint. Hope this might help someone in future.

comments: author: Andrey Ivanov
body: Thank you very much, I will take your advice and write back later


author: Andrey Ivanov
body: Hi, unfortunately it didn't work


Tags: cloud

jira-service-management

jira-service-management-cloud