How to stop removing labels from child issue when parent or parent label is changed?

[Sundram Trivedi]

Hi,

I’ve set up 3 Jira automation rules to copy labels from the parent issue (Epic) to child issues when:

• A child is created
• A child is moved to another parent
• The parent’s labels are updated

Right now, it copies the parent labels using "Copy from parent", which overwrites the child’s labels. So, when a label is removed from the parent or the parent is changed, that label also gets removed from the child.

I want to prevent this.
Labels from the parent should only be added to the child (if not already present), but never removed from the child — even if the parent or its labels change.

How can I update the rule to do this?

Thanks!

[Karan Sachdev · Accepted solution]

Hey @Sundram Trivedi

You may modify your trigger to run the rule only when labels are added.

Update the Change Type in the trigger to 'Value Added'. In this case, the rule will not be executed when you delete labels.

Hope this helps, Thanks!

[Sundram Trivedi]

Hi @Karan Sachdev ,

I tried updating the rule as suggested. Here's what happens:

1. When I add a label in the parent, it gets added to the child – ✅ works as expected.

2. When I remove a label from the parent, it does not remove it from the child – ✅ also fine.

3. But when I add a new label in the parent after removing the previous one, the rule removes the old label from the child and only keeps the current labels from the parent – ❌ not expected.

4. And when I remove one label and add another at the same time in the parent, the rule again removes the old label from the child, following the parent’s label set – ❌ also not expected.

[Karan Sachdev]

Hi @Sundram Trivedi

In that case, you need to edit the action item in your branch (where you'r copying labels from Parent to Child).

You should have 3 options: Set, AddRemove, Copy.

Please select AddRemove. Then select 'Copy from Parent' in the value to add section and leave the value to remove section blank.

Thanks!