JQL to exclude certain fix version

[Surekha Gupta]

I have a JQL with syntax below, that returns me a solitary issue which I have marked for a future release:

project = MYPROJECT AND issuetype = Initiative AND fixVersion in ("My Project Future") ORDER BY status

But What I want is a query that returns all issues that are not in a future release, but both of the below syntax return me zero results, in spite of the query w/o any fixversion criteria having 35 results with different fix versions in it. 

What might be the issue/what can I try?My real use case is to use this query within a structure automation to exclude the features meant for a future release.

project = MYPROJECT AND issuetype = Initiative AND fixVersion != "My Project Future" ORDER BY status

project = MYPROJECT AND issuetype = Initiative AND fixVersion not in ("My Project Future") ORDER BY status

[Surekha Gupta · Accepted solution]

I realized that I had actually not set the fix version in other issues of initiative type, and hence the query was returning zero results. This was a non-issue after all, and "!=" syntax works just fine after adding fix Version on other issues.