How to 'clear' a multi-select Checkbox Field using Automation Action

[Katrina Thacker]

Hello, as part of a Jira automation I need to clear a custom Checkbox field (multiselect).  So if at the start of the automation the issue has any of the available values selected I want to 'unselect' all of them.  When I use the out of the box "Edit Issue fields" it only provides the option to select a checkbox value (not uncheck).  Thanks in advance for your help.

[Alex Koxaras -Relational- · Accepted solution]

Hi @Katrina Thacker and welcome to the community!

Try using the advance editing like in my example below. I've tested it and works fine. "checkboxes" is the name of my custom field of type checkboxes:

[Vince Bartman]

Hey @Alex Koxaras -Relational-  - I'm using your method to clear a custom field (checkboxes) at the very end of an automation, so the custom field is clean for the next form submission.

I'm dynamically creating stories in an epic - one for each "check" if they are selected.

I'm getting "Issues edited successfully" response in the Audit log for this clearing step, however the custom field appears to retain its values.

After "successfully" clearing the custom field, subsequent form submissions continue to trigger all 4 dynamic stories when only 1 of the 4 options is selected in the form.

The custom checkbox field has 4 possible values, and my assumption is that the field retains ANY "checks" (so it can hold all 4 possible values at once). I do not have a blank or null value because my assumption is the value would add to the "checks" rather than overwrite them. I do not have a default value set up for the custom field or on the form.

Is there any other way to clear the custom field?