How to Quickly Bulk Revert Statuses in Jira Data Center
Changing issue statuses through bulk editing in Jira Data Center is a very powerful and practical functionality. But a minor mistake can seriously disrupt your workflow. Status changes are linked to workflows, so it is more difficult to undo them than other field edits.
Jira Data Center does not have an "undo" option for status changes, which means you have to plan ahead to fix them.
In this article, we will explore how to identify affected issues and easily reverse their status changes.
How Bulk Status Changes Work in Jira Data Center
With bulk actions in Jira Data Center, you can move all your issues to a new workflow step very quickly. This can be done by using the Bulk change feature, which allows users to change the status of multiple tasks at once. It can be very helpful for large projects or planning sprints, but it’s essential to understand how it works.
All changes in status within a project are connected with the workflow selected for that project. If bulk editing isn’t allowed for the given statuses in the workflow, the change won’t take effect, or it may be incomplete, leaving some issues in an incorrect state.
Jira Data Center does not have an automatic undo function after you complete a bulk status update. If an error occurs, you can’t just click the “revert” button.
It becomes a very difficult problem when:
- Issues belong to different workflows.
- The previous status can no longer be accessed.
- Automation made additional changes during the transition.
How to Make Bulk Status Changes in Jira Data Center
Follow these steps to make bulk changes to the Status fields in Jira Data Center:
- Go to Issues and choose Search for issues.
- Use the filters to get the list of issues that you want to change. For example, you can select a specific project, issue type, status, assignee, and so on.
- Go to Tools and choose Bulk Change: all X issue(s).
- Select all or only some issues.
- Then, click on Transition Issues.
- Select the workflow transition to execute on the associated issues. For example:
- Confirm the action.
As we mentioned previously, in the event of any problems that may occur during the status changes, you won’t be able to revert them with the help of Jira Data Center’s native features. However, you can use third-party apps available on the Atlassian Marketplace, like Issue History for Jira.
Usage of Issue History for Jira for Reverting Bulk Status Changes
Issue History for Jira app allows you to track and revert unexpected changes made by either users or by automation in your projects.
Let’s explore in detail how exactly it can help, specifically when considering the possibility of reverting bulk changes that happened to the Status field:
- Open the Issue History app and go to the Activity view. It enables you to view all changes grouped by field and time. It is ideal for identifying bulk edits.
- In the project field, select the required project (in this case, it is Marketing).
- Then, filter by Field: Status. You will see all the changes that were made to this field.
- To undo bulk status changes in Jira Data Center using Issue History app, select all the issues or just the ones needed using the checkboxes on the left.
- After that, click Bulk Revert.
- If the Bulk Revert operation is performed correctly, you will see a Success status.
With the help of Issue History for Jira app, it is easy to track and reverse bulk changes, even when Jira Data Center itself doesn’t provide an “undo” option.
🚀 Try Issue History for Jira now!
Summing Up
Managing issues through bulk status changes in Jira Data Center is helpful, but it should always be handled carefully. Since making status changes through workflows is not reversible, you should always be careful, use filters, and check the limitations of Bulk change.
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