How can I delete issues/tickets in a company-managed project & restart the Key numbering to XYZ-1?
Asked by Steve Hooczko:

How can I delete issues/tickets in a company-managed project \& restart the Key numbering at XYZ-1?


Answers:
author: shiva kumar Gosul
body: You can't delete issues, you can only be abandoned

comments: author: Trudy Claspill
body: [@shiva kumar Gosul](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4674204)

Jira does support deletion of issues.

A user must have the permission to delete the issues. That is a project level permission.

In a given Jira instance that permission may not be available and the administrators may elect to have users instead set such issues to a specific status, like Abandoned.

So, deletion of issues may not be available to you in your environment, but it is definitely supported by Jira.


author: Trudy Claspill
body: Hello [@Steve Hooczko](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4480256)

What problem are you trying to solve by restarting the issue keys numbering with 1 for the project?

How many issues do you need to delete?

Do you currently have permission to delete issues in that project?

comments: author: Steve Hooczko
body: 250 tickets to delete.

I'm one of the admins on the project.

This project was being used as a prototype to get things right for when the project goes LIVE. Everything is now configured, but we need to remove all the tickets before the LIVE date.


author: Steve Hooczko
body: I tried coping/cloning the project, but the copy/clone screens, etc., didn't look like the one's from the original (not all fields displayed). The fields were there, but it looked like more configuring had to be done to get it look like the OG.


author: Trudy Claspill
body: What type of project is it? Get that information from the Type column on the View All Projects page under the Projects menu.

If it is a Company Managed project, a new project can be created that shares the configuration schemes of the existing project. That will not include any customizations to the issue Layout, but you can copy the Layouts to the new project

It also would not include any Components or Versions you had defined. Those would have to be recreated. And it would not include copying or the customizations to the associated boards.

If it is a Team Managed project, sharing the project configuration with a new project is not possible.

You did not actually answer the question about having permission to delete issues in the project. Being an administrator for the project does not necessarily confer that permission.

You also did not answer the question about why the issue key numbering needs to be reset to 1. Why can't you continue the numbering of me issues from where the project is currently?


author: David Bakkers
body: Also, [@Steve Hooczko](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/4480256) , given that you asked the almost identical question [here](https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/How-can-I-delete-jira-tickets-and-reset-the-key-numbering-in-a/qaq-p/2778659) a fortnight ago, and was comprehensively advised that...

**In Jira Cloud, you CANNOT reset or restart the Issue key numbering sequence in a Project**

it's a mystery as to why you are asking, again, how to do it.

Just use Google and search for 'jira cloud reset issue keys' to learn how many hundreds, possibly THOUSANDS of times that question has been asked, and the answer is always the same...

**IN JIRA CLOUD, YOU CANNOT RESET OR RESTART THE ISSUE KEY NUMBERING SEQUENCE IN A PROJECT.** {#toc-hId--348695159}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sorry, but this is as big and as bold as I can make the text for you to be able to read it.


author: Trudy Claspill
body: [@David Bakkers](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/1575730)

Prior to the change that eliminated the CSV import to an existing project, that was a method that could be used to force a reset of the issue key numbering, though it was strongly advised to not do so because of the potential problems it could cause.


author: David Bakkers
body: Hello [@Trudy Claspill](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3569011)

I have not heard of any prior method of force resetting Issue keys back to #1 for Jira CLOUD via importing CSVs. Can you provide links to any documentation that describes how that was possible and when the change was made to the platform to eliminate it being possible?

AFAIK, it is only possible to reset Issue key sequence back to #1 in Jira SERVER / DC platform by directly altering the database, which of course is very, very dangerous, so is strongly advised against.


author: Trudy Claspill
body: I'm not aware of any documentation specific to Jira Cloud, but personally used the method of explicitly declaring the issue key in the CSV file, executing an external System Import of CSV as a Jira Administrator mapping the CSV file issue key column to the Jira Issue Key field, and that would force the reset of the numeric portion of the issue key. I discovered this worj d in Jira DC, and it also worked when I tried it on Jira Cloud.

The change that blocks this is the recent change to importing a CSV that requires you to import to a new product ject rather than an existing project.


author: David Bakkers
body: What you are describing sounds to me that you were just declaring, in the CSV, an Issue key with a particular number that mapped to an Issue in the project with the *same* number, essentially over-writing that existing Issue..

Alternatively, you might be describing the classic 'jump ahead' technique, [described here](https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/how-to-change-the-issue-key-counter-to-a-desired-number-1251410572.html) or via the bug documented in [JRACLOUD-77334](https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/JRACLOUD-77334), to force the Issue numbering sequence to start at a HIGHER number than the next available number in the sequence.

Apart from that, I'll have to strongly disagree with you on this one :-) I can think of no way any CSV import method for Jira Cloud that has ever been able to change any existing Issue key's number back to 1 or to start from 1 all over again. The Issue numbering sequence in Jira Cloud, once started, is immutable per Project, and this has been the case since day 1 (pun intended) of the platform's release.

**\[A complete retraction and apology from me on this topic appears further down this thread\]**

Anyhow, the OP can only do what has already been advised they do.... Clone the Project and all its settings, without the Issues, delete the old Project, then change the new Project's name and Key to be the same as the old project.


author: Trudy Claspill
body: Disagreement is always an option. Since the CSV import options have changed there is no way for me to prove that the method I used works. All I can do is assure that it did, in fact, work. If all the issues in the project were deleted you could force a reset to a lower number in the same way it could force a reset to a higher number.


author: David Bakkers
body: [@Trudy Claspill](/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/3569011)

I have to offer my absolute, complete, total and unequivocal apology to you. **You were absolutely right!**

I just tried using my Jira Admin account to do an external import of a CSV file into a Project where all the issues from KEY-1 to KEY-100 had been deleted. When importing, *I switched back to the classic view*, then imported a set of Issues that started with KEY-1 up to KEY-5... and I was able to map Issue Key -\> Issue Key and thereby create an Issue with KEY-1 and the next 4 issues followed in the sequence set in the CSV

I've never heard of this backdoor technique for Jira Cloud!

The method is not available to Project Admins or other 'lower' users who only have access to the default CSV importation method, since they can't map the Issue Key field.

Of course, none of this has any effect on the 'normal' use of Jira via the GUI and any manually created Issues will still continue their numbering sequence after the highest numbered Issue, so it's not a full 'reset' like the OP is inferring.

Again, I am very happy to apologise and put the method into my grab bag of techniques.


Tags: cloud

jira-cloud