How to restored a deleted description

[hob]

I accidentally clicked on the X next to a lengthy ticket description, and it is now deleted and blank.  If I look in the activity-> history I see the assignment changes, but not my deletion. I have made several length comments since the deletion.

Is it possible to get the description back?

[Adrian Stephen]

If you have a backup generated before the issue was deleted,  xml backup restore is one way

• https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/restoring-data-from-an-xml-backup-938847707.html

There are also automated backups generated in the JIRA_HOME/export directory

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Changes to the description field will be visible in the issue history.  But if you've scrubbed one you were writing before saving it, then Jira never had the data and can't have recorded it.

[Joe Pitt]

If it isn't in the history it is gone. Along the same lines, 

Do not delete issues. When you delete it is GONE. Hardly a week goes by without someone wanting to restore an issue. Deleting issues will come back and bite you when it is the most inconvenient. I suggest closing with a resolution value of Deleted anything you want to delete. I implement a special transition only the project lead can execute and it requires filling in a reason field from a select list (such as entered in error, OBE, Duplicate, Other) and explanation text.

Deleting issues destroys historical data. Missing issue numbers will eventually cause a question about what it was and why was it deleted even if it was done properly. Missing data always brings in the question of people hiding something that may have looked bad.

The only viable way to restore an issue is to create a new instance of JIRA and restore a backup that has the issues. Then export them to a csv file and import them to your production instance. You will lose the history.