Rebuild a project and import old project issues

[Lisa Kerns]

I have a project called Project A.  It was created with old templates and I want to recreate it with new templates.  But I still want to use the name Project A and I would love to export the existing issues and import them into the new project.  It is not a big project - maybe 10 epics and 100 issues total.  What is the best way to do this?

[John Funk · Accepted solution]

Hi Lisa,

It would probably look something like this:

1. Export all of the issues from Project A into a CSV file.

2. Delete Project A. You will need to completely remove it from the trash so that it is gone. 

3. Create the new project using the same name and project key from the previous. 

4. Copy the CSV file so that you have all of the original information.

5. Now copy that CSV file and remove everything but the Epics. Also remove the Key column from this CSV file.

6. Import the CSV file with just the Epics. Be sure that the Epic issue type is the top issue type in your issue type scheme. 

7. Once these get imported, make note of the new Keys for all of the Epics. You will then need to do a search and replace on the first copy of the CSV file to update your issues to now be lined to the new Epic key values. 

8. Clear out the Epics from this copy. Clear out the current Keys for the stories. 

9. Now import this CSV. Again, be sure to change the issue type scheme to move the Story issue type to the top as this is what will be used to create the new issues. 

10. If you have multiple issue types other than story, you will need to do each one at a time. You might can use the issuetype code for each, but with so few issues, I would just do them one at a time. So, that also means you might need to create more copies of the CSV and only upload a CSV with just those issue types. 

That should do the trick for you. It's a lot to do for keeping the same name and key for the project, and there might be an easier way to do it, but that's off the top of my head. 

Good Luck!

[Lisa Kerns]

Thanks!  I went with Clark's recommendation as I don't need to save the key.  As we progress with our JIRA usage I can see this alternative route coming in handy so will make note of the process.  Thanks very much.

[Clark Everson · Accepted solution]

@Lisa Kerns 

You still want to use the name or the project key? If the key this is a lot harder, if just the name though this is pretty easy 

just rename project a to something else. Create project b with the name and key you want

bulk move all the issues from project a to b

best,

clark

[Lisa Kerns]

I don't need to save the key, so went this route and it worked like a charm!  Thanks.