If a Custom field is not associated with any screen, does that implies that it is not used anywhere?

[Shriya Chhajed]

Hi, 

If a Custom field is not associated with any screen, does that implies that it is not used anywhere in any of the projects, scripts etc? 

If it is so then it is safe to delete, which no negative impact on any projects ? 

And if not, then how we can find out where it is used/associated? 

Regards

Shriya Chhajed

[Milan Chheda [INFOSYSTA]]

No, custom fields can be used on screens as well as workflows. In workflows, you probably would need to check all transitions and their respective conditions, validations and post functions. 

Also, there is an add-on Custom field manager for JIRA that can be useful too. 

You can find this useful too: https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/How-to-find-out-were-Custom-Fields-are-used/qaq-p/107377

[Shriya Chhajed]

Hi Milan, 

Thanks for your response. Is there any way to find out the presence of custom field in workflow, rather than checking every transitions? 

I read the link you provided (similar community question) which also provides some queries, but i guess that it did not help them much. 

[Milan Chheda [INFOSYSTA]]

To my best knowledge, there is no direct way to know which fields are used in which transitions, post-functions and in which scripts. Unfortunately, It's a manual process.

[Shriya Chhajed]

Thank you Milan :) 

[Jill Vieregge]

Note: the above add-on isn't available for Jira Cloud.

[Joe Pitt]

No. Many of us use fields set by scripts or post functions that can be searched on but never show on any screen. Usually, but not always, when you look at the definition it will show it is restricted to a project(s) or issue type(s), but not always. 

[Shriya Chhajed]

Hi Joseph, 

Thank you for your answer. 

The custom field that i am using is global and available to all projects and all issue types, but not associated with any screens. 

Also how can we find the fields which are used in scripts or post functions or in any transitions? 

[Joe Pitt]

As @Milan Chheda [INFOSYSTA] said there is a tool in the marketplace to help. If it is used in any way it will end up in an issue somewhere. You can search on the field in every issue type across projects. If there is data you'll see it. That is a brute force solution and depending on the amount of data you have may need to be done in limited projects at a time. I would expect you know where most of your custom fields are being used and only need to search for a limited number.  

[Jimmy Seddon]

@Shriya Chhajed,

One thing you coudl try to help naorrow down what might be setting values is to run a JQL query against that field to show you non-empty values.  Seeing what data is stored in that field might help determine who might be using it.

Just a thought.

-James

[Shriya Chhajed]

@Joe Pitt Thank you :) Since we have lot of data in the instance, manual process will take long time. 

[Shriya Chhajed]

@[deleted] Thank you for your suggestion :) But yes i can try searching with some JQL queries.