Issue with Jira Automation: Error Transitioning Issue Due to Simultaneous Comments

[Konstantinos Sotiriou]

I'm running into an error with my Jira automation rule, and I'm hoping for some guidance or workarounds. Here’s the situation:

I have an automation rule set up to transition an issue to the "Waiting for Support" status whenever a comment is added, provided the current status is "Pending on Customer." In general, this rule works smoothly. However, when two comments are added almost simultaneously (within milliseconds of each other), the automation fails on the second attempt. I get the following error message:

Transition issue Error transitioning issues PR-XXXX (Can't move (PR-XXXX). You might not have permission, or the issue is missing required information. If you keep having this problem, contact your Jira Administrator.)

The issue isn’t related to permissions or the workflow settings. The error occurs because the second attempt to transition the issue is trying to move it to a status it's already in, due to the first comment-triggered transition occurring milliseconds earlier.

Is there a way to prevent the second transition attempt from failing if the issue has already been moved to "Waiting for Support"? Or any other workaround to handle simultaneous comment-triggered events?

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

[Aaron Pavez _ServiceRocket_]

Hi @Konstantinos Sotiriou 

If the first automation works, is there a why you care the second fails?

The second will fail since the automation has run and the status has changed. 

This is a race condition that doesn't have a fix yet.

You can either

- Add a delay (there is a new action for that in the automation)

- Refetch (this might not always work. Set it as the first action to fetch new data and see if the status hasn't changed.

Regards

[Konstantinos Sotiriou]

Hi @Aaron Pavez _ServiceRocket_

Thank you for your reply.

If the second run fails, I receive a failure email and need to check on the automation each time fails.

- I’ve tried adding a delay action, but it delays both runs equally, so there’s no effect.

- Yesterday, I also added a re-fetch action. I’m not sure if it’s working yet, and I’ll monitor it over the next few days to see if the error triggers again.

Regards

[Konstantinos Sotiriou]

Re-fetch also didn't work.

[Konstantinos Sotiriou]

[Konstantinos Sotiriou]

[Aaron Pavez _ServiceRocket_]

Hi @Konstantinos Sotiriou 

This is the kind of thing you learn to live with. You will have to filter the emails (which isn't quite good since if the rule truly fails, then you need to check the Jira issues where it failed or investigate if it failed at all) or set up another trigger, not with any comment.

Or you add another condition to the automation. 

I see that, out of the box, JSM will change the status when a new comment is added; no automation is needed for that. 

If the workflow is set correctly, the status EX:waiting for customer should change to waiting for support when a custom adds a comment.

This can help:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/how-to-update-ticket-status-when-customer-adds-a-comment-1167831032.html

Regards

[Konstantinos Sotiriou]

Thank you @Aaron Pavez _ServiceRocket_

This is how I’ve implemented it, by changing the status when the customer adds a comment.

We use Exalate to sync issues between our ITSM and the customer’s system. Often, Exalate syncs changes every 1-2 minutes from the queue. So, if two comments are added within this time window, they will be posted simultaneously to my Jira project.

That’s really the issue.

Thank you again.

[Aaron Pavez _ServiceRocket_]

Hi Again!

Let me check about this since you are using Exalate to sync. Ill reply later on this.

Now I need to understand, why are you using this automation? Since JSM do this now for you without need of automation?

Customer replies will change the Jira status to waiting for support. The automation is not needed to change the status.

regards

[Konstantinos Sotiriou]

Hi Again!

What do you mean with this "Since JSM do this now for you without need of automation?"
Do you mean that it should be done directly from Exalate?
Not all customers (which means) projects use Exalate integration.
Also, for now, we don't want Exalate to "edit" our statuses.

Thank you very much for your help.