Can a single-select field be changed to a multi-select field?

[Kevin Paulus]

Jira Software Server, v 7.8:

Project lead wants custom field changed from single-selsct to multi-select.  Is it possible & how.  If not, recommendations on how to proceed are welcomed.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

Not directly in the UI, so if you're on Cloud or don't want to risk potentially fatal actions, you have to do it manually.

But, this is one of the few times I'm happy suggesting database access on a Server system.  See https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/changing-custom-field-types-in-jira-158357.html for that (and the manual method)

[Kevin Paulus]

Thank you Nic.  Since the field in question is used in 14 different projects, the only logical choice is a database change.  I am certain I will not do that without much advance planning.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

The plan should be

• book downtime with users
• stop Jira
• take a database export
• make sure you can restore that somewhere else
• run the SQL
• restart Jira and run a re-index (if you're on 6.4, then the re-index no longer needs to be the full one, a background will do)

But, this is still one of the few times I'm happy to run SQL against a (shut down) Jira database.  Done it several times and never had any problems.

[Kevin Paulus]

Advice appreciated & taken under advisement for my team.  Thanks again Nic!

[Rahul Ingle]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- It's possible to JIRA Cloud version?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

No.  You have no access to the database behind Cloud installations.

For Cloud, you will need to create a new field for the data and then use bulk edit to duplicate all the values you want into it.  And then kill off the old field after you've migrated

[Srikanth Ganipisetty]

Hi, supporting @Nic Brough -Adaptavist-

The same thing works for Server/Datacenter, if we are fine to use a new custom field and update the scripts calling it. In Scriptrunner, we can use built in scripts to update all tickets in a filter, and then doing copy field1 to field2. 

Thanks,

Srikanth