Why does creating a clone via Automation not produce a "clones" Link between the 2 issues?

[Rodney Dsouza (Atlassian Certified Expert)]

I semi-successfully automatically clone my issues on a daily, weekly or monthly basis - depending on whether the issue has a "dailyrepeating", "weeklyrepeating" and "monthlyrepeating" Label.

The problem I have is that there is no "clones"/"is cloned by" Link created by Jira/Automation.  This seems like BUG  (I would like it to work like any other clone action).   IS THIS A BUG or a FEATURE?

[Ivan Lima · Accepted solution]

HI @Rodney Dsouza (Atlassian Certified Expert), assuming you're using the Clone issue action, this action will not clone issue links, comments or attachments by design. You can set additional fields, including linked issues, along with other parameters as you see fit. Have a look at the automation actions docs:

• https://support.atlassian.com/jira-software-cloud/docs/automation-actions/
• https://confluence.atlassian.com/automation/actions-993924834.html#Actions-cloneissue

I hope that helps,

IL.

[Rodney Dsouza (Atlassian Certified Expert)]

Thanks much for your answer.    Looking at the documentation for the clone automation it does say it is not a true clone.

By the way "this action will not clone issue links, comments or attachments by design" - I checked just now and there built-in clone also does not clone comments or attachments, so only issue links are missing from those 3.  Of course, there could be other differences too.  I am just documenting here for whoever has the same question as me in the future.

To create a Link between the 2 issues, I believe the only way to do that in Automation is to create a new 'Link Issues' Action and set the set the reference issue to 'Most recently created issue'  (and not 'Trigger issue').   Trying to set fields for linked issues will not meet the intent of setting the correct issue link since I think it would be just like copying any links on the original issue (nothing to do with the current cloning action).

[Marlene Kegel - codefortynine]

If your use case is not possible with Jira Automation, you can also have a look at our Jira cloud app Deep Clone for Jira.

• You can automatically trigger clones by creating a post-function
• You're flexible to decide whether you want to create a "is cloned by/clones" issue link when cloning.