Csv importer not working for parent

[Rishi Sohaney]

After latest changes on Parent for making parent child realtion, the csv importer not updating parent on existing issues and making changes incorrectly.

Pls suggest and share sample csv with mapping.

Thanks.

[Simon Tilbury]

I had the same problem so I tried mapping my CSV parent field to "Epic Link" instead and this worked. Hope it helps

[Gaetan Massot]

It worked for me too!

[John Funk]

Epic Link field has been deprecated and should not be relied on moving forward. You need to use the Parent field. 

[Simon Tilbury]

Agreed but if the Parent field isn't working....

[John Funk]

Hmmm, I just used it and it worked fine. Was it an Epic you were putting there? Or a higher level? 

[Simon Tilbury]

It wasn't the "Epic" issue type and think it might have been a higher level 

[John Funk]

Still should have worked. Oh well, if it does it again, let us know - I would like to see what is not working with it. 

[Gaetan Massot]

Similar problem here, I import stories and put the parent key in my csv but it won't retrieve it...

Plus, how am I supposed to give an issue key for my stories if they are not imported yet in Jira? I do not get this part. 

[Simon Tilbury]

See my answer above detailing how I resolved this

[John Funk]

Hi Rishi,

What type of project are you importing into? Team-managed? Company-managed? 

Are you creating the parent at the same time you are importing the children? Or just creating children and attaching to an existing parent? 

[Rishi Sohaney]

Hi John, 

Project is Company Managed and Parents (epic) and orphan child (story) are existing. Through CSV I'm making Parent- Child relationship. 

[John Funk]

Thanks for that. Then in your spreadsheet, put a column called Parent and put the key of the Epic for that story (e.g. ABC-123). Then also make sure you have a column for the issue key of the Story (ABC-678). 

Finally, you will have to do the import through the System Settings path: Settings > System > External system import

[Rishi Sohaney]

Thanks, John. I did exactly same and it won't work. 

[John Funk]

Hmm - can you share what you have? And how did it now work? What error did you get?

[Mike Engel]

I think I had the same issue. I was attempting to following the instructions here: CSV import Parent-child mapping | Jira | Atlassian Documentation

I used the following data with no value in the "Parent" column for my parent record and the next 3 lines as children. 

Project Key,Project Name,Project Type,Issue type,Issue key,Issue ID,Summary,Parent
CAP,Capabilities,software,Capability,CAP-1,12106,Capability 1,
CCP,1 Coord and Planning,software,Epic,CCP-52,11774,03. Dashboard,12106
BSS,9 Business Support Svcs,software,Epic,BSS-105,11458,Release 2 Deliverable Documents,12106
DATA,Data Mgmt and Integration,software,Epic,DATA-49,11440,General Tactical Items,12106

Using the old import tool, I loaded the file and mapped the fields to Jira. When I got all the way through the mapping and clicked import, the result was this error: "Unable to retrieve issue key for parent: 12106". I take this to mean the import tool tried to find the issue key for the parent of 12106, but this is the top level document I want to link the following 3 items to, so I don't have a parent issue id for it.

[pam_hite_wbd_com]

Interested in the answer here ?????  I am getting the same error.  The parent already exists on the Target instance (ABC-123)  and I am adding that Issue Key to the Parent column in the CSV file that I am importing.  According to your documentation, this should create the relationship between Epic and Story (Parent/Child) but it is not working.  CSV importer error "Unable to retrieve issue key for parent:  ABC-123

Suggestions ?

[John Funk]

Hi @pam_hite_wbd_com  - Can you share some screenshots?

[David Cook]

@John Funk are you still interested in assisting with this issue?
I am experiencing the same thing. 
I have an existing epic and I am trying to create multiple child stories each with a subtask. 
The subtasks end up children of the new stories but the new stories are created as orphans and have to be manually added to the parent. 

Input File
IssueType,Summary,Issue Key,Resources,Label,Custom field (Scope),Issue id,Parent,Original estimate hours
epic,Grant Administrators engaging with Sell on Marketplace,SH-50987,,,P1 Future Consumers of Grant Administrators,16,,
story,BA: Grant Administrators engaging with Sell on Marketplace,,,,P1 Estimate Placeholder,17,16,
story,Estimate: Grant Administrators engaging with Sell on Marketplace,,,,P1 Estimate Placeholder,18,16,
story,Architect: Grant Administrators engaging with Sell on Marketplace,,,,P1 Estimate Placeholder,19,16,
story,Design: Grant Administrators engaging with Sell on Marketplace,,,,P1 Estimate Placeholder,20,16,
story,Backend: Grant Administrators engaging with Sell on Marketplace,,,,P1 Estimate Placeholder,21,16,
story,Frontend: Grant Administrators engaging with Sell on Marketplace,,,,P1 Estimate Placeholder,22,16,
story,QA: Grant Administrators engaging with Sell on Marketplace,,,,P1 Estimate Placeholder,23,16,
subtask,BA,,BA,BA,P1 Estimate Placeholder,24,17,43200
subtask,Estimate,,Estimate,Estimate,P1 Estimate Placeholder,25,18,36000
subtask,Architect,,Architect,Architect,P1 Estimate Placeholder,26,19,14400
subtask,Design,,Design,Design,P1 Estimate Placeholder,27,20,295200
subtask,Backend,,Backend,Backend,P1 Estimate Placeholder,28,21,792000
subtask,Frontend,,Frontend,Frontend,P1 Estimate Placeholder,29,22,619200
subtask,QA,,QA,QA,P1 Estimate Placeholder,30,23,172800

[David Cook]

@John Funk this is the error message

[John Funk]

Hi @David Cook  - Welcome to the Atlassian Community!

You should be using the Parent field and not the Parent Link field, assuming you are using Cloud. Also, it seems to be complaining about the Summary for that issue - maybe because it has a colon (:) and that is not getting handled adequately on the import. Maybe change that for now to take the colon out. 

[David Cook]

thanks @John Funk 
We are using the Parent field in jira. 
I tried a couple different things and had unexpected outcomes.
1. Instead of using existing epics as the parent I created new epics and same issue making the stories children of the new epic. I expected it would work since the new subtasks have no issue attaching as children to the new stories.
2. Then I switched over to the sandbox and created clean project and when I ran the same import it attaches the first story to the new epic and then fails all the others and fails to link the subtasks as children. So entirely different result almost the opposite of our production environment. 
Hopefully they can resolve it early monday when support is back in the office but in the meantime we have loaded everything into Click-Up which is the clients second choice. fingers crossed.

[John Funk]

Can you share a screenshot of your CSV file in a spreadsheet format? 

Below is my model.

[John Funk]