Re-indexing. Config change on plugin BigPicture. What is risk

[Mateusz Janus]

Hey friends.

Its my first time with JIRA SERVER. I have BigPicture plugin and i had to change the config on Task Scheduling (from bottom-top -> Manual). I had an issue with autoupdate Due Date value. I changed the Big Picture Config on Project level but issue still exists. I saw info that re-indexing might resolve the problem but i have never used it before (i am rather cloud admin). Can you explain me what may happen if i click below button and if there is any risk that something blows up?

[Tuncay Senturk · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mateusz Janus 

Sometimes fields like Due Date don’t update right away because Jira relies on indexing for calculated fields and JQL searches. Only updated issues get re-indexed automatically, so unchanged ones may show outdated values or be missing from filters (like in BigPicture). To fix this, you can manually trigger a project or full system re-index. It’s safe—just choose background indexing so Jira stays responsive during the process.

[Walter Buggenhout · Accepted solution]

Hi @Mateusz Janus and welcome to the Community!

The index is a layer in between the UI and database that is there to speed up (e.g.) search operations from the UI. Since it is a separate layer sitting between the application and the database, certain operations that you conduct directly on the database without properly syncing them into the index may cause inconsistent results in the application. e.g. you might search for issues with status 'Done' and in the search results see items returned with a different status.

Reindexing does not do much more than rebuilding the index to bring it in sync again with the database if such an inconsistent state has somehow emerged. So the risk of blowing things up is rather limited, to be honest and it can resolve certain issues.

Hope this helps!