Editing a custom field name used by multiple projects

[Dilan Kaplan]

Hi all, 

I would like to change the name of a custom field from 'Summary' to 'Title' however, I already have 50+ tickets on my board and this specific custom field is used on 170 screens. Is there any way I can do this without losing the data on my existing project and without altering the use of this custom field on any other project?

[Brant Schroeder · Accepted solution]

Dilan,

You can change the name of the custom field and not loose any data.  The name would change on all projects that the custom field is associated with.  So users on the other projects might be looking for summary and it will not be title.  You can always us a new context for that custom field and associate it with your project so it has a different name in the single project.  I would assume that you would have to enter the data again for that context but would need to test to be sure.  You can learn more about that here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/adminjiraserver/configuring-a-custom-field-938847235.html

[Joe Pitt · Accepted solution]

Because JIRA uses the field ID, not the name, as the database key it can have multile fields with the same name you can make the change. This often happens when there are multiple JIRA admins and JIRA isn't under a change control process putting in custom fields in different projects. You can change the name, but it will confuse the users since Summary, regardless of the name, is a REQUIRED field to create an issue you will have duplicate field names. 

[Dilan Kaplan]

@Brant Schroeder @Joe Pitt 

Thank-you both. I will continue with Summary, it just appears to complicate matters unnecessarily.

Thanks again for your speedy responses!