Copying Jira issues from another database

[John Goetz]

Hello,

I recently moved my JIRA installation to a new server. I thought I had pointed my new installation at the existing database (on a remote server accessible by both old and new JIRA installations), but instead I pointed the new JIRA at an older, stale, copy of the database.
It's now been about 2 months, and of course we're missing issues – those that weren't in the stale database copy.
We're using MySQL, in case that matters.

1. Is there a process to copy issues from one database to another (other than manually copy-paste)?
2. Is there a way to compare databases to determine which issues are missing?
   1. What table in the database holds the issue information?
3. Would it be better to point the new instance at the original database and manually add in all new issues generated since we stood up the new instance (time consuming and tedious, but preserves the existing issue numbers), or to keep our current database and just add in the missing issues (possible issue number collision)? Most probably there are less issues missing than there are new issues created since we stood up the new instance.

[Jobin Kuruvilla [Adaptavist]]

There is no easy solution I am afraid!

You cannot copy the issues from on DB to another. There will be lot of missing pieces. 

Depending on how many issues you lost vs how many were created since the migration, you need to start from the old instance or current instance. You can then setup a second instance pointing to the other DB and move issues that are missing. 

Identifying the difference is not an easy thing either. You can probably do it easier on the current instance because you can find issues created since a given date. Once you identify the missing issues, you can export them into CSV and import them into the other instance. You will loose some history and dependencies. And the issues will get a new number. But it will still be better than nothing!