Question regarding moving project keys

[Bentsion Berg]

I have a project ABC that I want to move to DEF. I also have another project GHI that I want to move to ABC after I moved ABC to DEF. As per the documentation, it is not possible to create a new project with a previously used key (ABC) but can you move an existing project to a previously used key? I would assume not but just wanted to confirm.

Thanks!

[Mark Segall]

Hi Bentsion,

Correct. You cannot reuse a project key, but you can move issues in one project to another.  This can be done with a bulk action by running a an advanced issue query with the following steps:

1. Run Query PROJECT = ABC
2. Select Bulk Change from the top right menu
3. Select all issues on the next screen and click Next
4. Select Move Issues and click Next
5. Select DEF project and any desired change to issue type and Click Next
6. Execute the move

A couple notes

1. Jira caps out at 1,000 results so if you have more than 1,000 issues that you're planning to move, you'll need to repeat this process until ABC returns no results.
2. Unless you're planning to make changes to all of your issues, you probably want to make sure the destination project is configured with shared configuration from ABC. 

Hope this helps.

[Bentsion Berg]

Thanks Mark. 

My question was more around reusing the old key for an existing project as you cannot reuse a key for a new project.

So using key ABC for existing project GHI.

Thanks,

Ben