Should NOT automatically set assignee as reporter

[Adelina Popescu]

Hi, 

It looks like when i try to create a task the assignee gets automatically set as the reporter 

I looked and i do not have 

- any jira automation rules added for this to happen 

- any post functions 

- default assignee is set as 'unassigned' on the project details

Any other ideas where to look or what might be the reason this is happening out of nowhere?

[Kajsabet Morin]

Hi,

We have the same issue for several (all?) of our projects (I have not checked all). Creator of a work item is pre-filled as assignee which has caused a lot of confusion and missed work items. This started 1-2 weeks ago.

We have no components, no automation for assignee and Unassigned is default assignee for all projects.

[Adelina Popescu]

thanks for you input! hopefully will get to the root cause of it. i also submitted a support ticket to the jira support team 

[Adelina Popescu]

thanks a lot for you fast reply. Yes i ve been trying to figure it out myself for quite a while 

- yeah, it is not happening for all projects, but what i can say is that the ones with the issue and the ones without it are using same issue types and it happens for all, same workflows, same filed configuration 

- if i change the reporter in the create screen the assignee does not change, it stays my name. no components are set for the project

- we do not use script runner

hope this is useful, i also added some screen shots maybe it helps

[Tessa Tuteleers]

Hi @Adelina Popescu , 

This really helps! It tells me that indeed automation or postfunctions or other apps are not doing this. Why? because the field is already filled in with your name while you are still creating the issue, and not that it gets filled after creation by something.

According to your screenshots, I don't see any reason why the assignee would be pre-filled: 

• There are no components
• Default assignee = unassigned
• Any post functions or automations can't act on the create screen itself, that would happen afterwards

Can you check if this happens only for you? 
I would like to figure out if the project lead or the creater is being set, as you ar both it is a little difficult to determine. Can you test in a different project where this happens too but you are not project lead, or can a different user try and create an issue in this project. Which assignee is being set (if any?)

[Adelina Popescu]

it is not happening only for me - i did both test prior our conversation 

- everyone is creating an issue in the project is automatically gets set as assignee 

- i did a test on a project where i am not project lead and happens the same thing 

[Tessa Tuteleers]

Thanks for confirming!
I fear this might be something browser or caching related (like your email being filled in in some fields), have you done any tests relating to that (take an anonymous browser for example)

[Adelina Popescu]

yes, just did some tests, tried incognito in chrome and another browser (edge) and the issue still persists 

[Adelina Popescu]

and i suppose that if it was caching browser would have happen on all projects maybe ? i create tasks on all projects

Another aspect to mention i think this started to happen with 23rd of April. maybe you had some updates that can be related. This is how i know that i do not think it has to do with any of our set up since i did not do any JIRA configuration 3 weeks before 23rd.

[Matthew Gibble]

My team and I are seeing the same thing. I cannot give an exact timeframe, but it seems to have been a recent change and we have made no significant configuration changes.

The only projects where we are NOT seeing this behavior are projects that are configured with a "Default assignee" of "Project lead."

[Susan Wands]

I have been Googling this same thing for hours now. It was not doing this a few weeks ago. Something changed with all these new JIRA updates. In JIRA, the create is defaulting assignee to reporter. It selects and pre-fills the reporter in the assignee dropdown. All of my projects are set to default assignee, unassigned. I have no automations. I have no components that could be overriding it. I have not changed anything recently. It just started ignoring my default assignee all of the sudden. Now my reporters, who are not devs and will not be working on fixing the issue, are assigned tickets in my projects.

[Sanam Malleswari]

Hi @Adelina Popescu

Welcome to the community! 

When you create a new issue, Jira tries to assign it based on these rules — in order:

1. Is there an automation rule or post function?
   → If yes, Jira assigns based on that.

2. Is there a default assignee for the component?
   → If a component is selected and it has a default assignee, Jira uses that person.

3. If nothing else is defined, what is the project's default assignee?
   → This is set in Project Settings → Details under "Default Assignee".

[Tessa Tuteleers]

Hi @Adelina Popescu , 

Welcome to the community! 

Good that you already ruled out some stuff! 
Can you check the history in the issue itself after creation? Does it mention an update setting the assignee? If so, by which user? 

If you're sure it's not "default assignee", post functions or automations, we need to check deeper. 

• Is it in a specific project / issue type? 
• Is it reporter that is being set as assingee, or is it possible you have components with leads, what if reporter != creator, who is being set as assignee?
• Do you have different apps like scriptrunner? 

The behaviour is not default, so something must be causing it. 

Please let us know what you find out! 

kr, 

Tessa

[georges_khoury]

Hello!
I am going through the exact same thing. we eventually decided to just change the assignee upon issue creation. but it would be better to have it unassigned from the first place

[Adelina Popescu]

but this is an extra step really annoying and for us where every developer can create tasks in the backlog for anyone to take is not a long term solution 

thanks a lot for the tip tho!!