statusCategoryChangedDate field isn't ordering or filtering correctly

[Jayan_ Vishnu]

Hey Everyone. I've got a JQL that is uses statusCategoryChangedDate to find out tasks that were closed beyond a certain date. This used to work properly and reflect an accurate count.

This was first noticed as the JQL result count dropped in count. Looking at the filter, when I'm sorting it, its not sorting it properly. Below is a screenshot of sorting of the date in an ascending manner.

Furthermore, the JQL's using this field isn't returning the correct data set.

I used the below JQL to find out work items with date greater than 2024-11-24 and it returned a count of 18.

status = Closed and statusCategoryChangedDate >= 2024-11-24 ORDER BY statusCategoryChangedDate ASC

When I export the data to an excel CSV and filter the dates I'm getting a different count.

Has anyone seen this behavior before? I'm pretty sure this was working at least a week before, though I don't have an exact date.

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Jayan_ Vishnu 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

I have not been able to replicate the issue you see with sorting based on Status Category Change Date. Can you share with us the JQL you are using in that scenario? And are you using that in the Search Work Items screen or in some other screen?

Do other users of your Jira instance encounter the same problem?

One thing I notice is that the Excel image you showed doesn't include the Status of the issues, but the query you have directly above it is filtering for issues in a specific status - Closed. What is the filter you are using to get the data you exported to Excel?

[Marc - Devoteam]

HI @Jayan_ Vishnu 

Welcome to the community.

I can't replicate this to.

Can you try it in an incognito window or other browser, or clear you cache and cookies.

[Jayan_ Vishnu]

Thanks @Trudy Claspill  and @Marc - Devoteam  for the quick responses.

Can you share with us the JQL you are using in that scenario? 

Below is the JQL that I'm using. I've masked the Project name.

parent in (TEMP-5425, TEMP-6494, TEMP-7001, TEMP-7337) and status = Closed and statusCategoryChangedDate >= 2024-11-24 order by statusCategoryChangedDate desc

And are you using that in the Search Work Items screen or in some other screen?

This was the JQL that I've setup for a filter used in a dashboard. The count for the JQL was 31 last week and without any mods to the JQL or filter, the count dropped to 18, which prompted this research.

I tried copying the JQL into the 'All Work' Seach screen, but it gave me the same response.

Do other users of your Jira instance encounter the same problem?

The same behavior is seen by others accessing the filter.

One thing I notice is that the Excel image you showed doesn't include the Status of the issues, but the query you have directly above it is filtering for issues in a specific status - Closed. What is the filter you are using to get the data you exported to Excel?

The excel data was exported with the below JQL.

parent in (TEMP-5425, TEMP-6494, TEMP-7001, TEMP-7337) and status = Closed

The raw data was then filtered with the statusCategoryChangedDate within excel as shown in the prior screenshot.

Can you try it in an incognito window or other browser, or clear you cache and cookies.

I did try in incognito window and in a different VM instance, but its the same behavior. I also looked into the Jira mobile app and its giving me the same response.

Further investigation

Another indicator for the issue being an issue with the statusCategoryChangedDate field is that when I update my JQL to use the resolved Date instead the data set it shows is different. For example, when I update the JQL as shown below.

parent in (TEMP-5425, TEMP-6494, TEMP-7001, TEMP-7337) and status = Closed and resolved >= 2024-11-24 order by resolved desc

This gives me a response of 26 hits. While its true that the field for comparison is different, the data shown in the search is interesting. In this case the sort is done using the resolved date field and that orders the data correctly. I can also see the values of the Status Category Changed date field for these records.

 

As shown in the screenshot, all the Status Category dates are also > 2024-11-24.

When I update the query to sort by Status Category date instead of resolved, the sort bugs out.

 

There are 8 items that are not being sorted properly. As shown above, the July 16th 2025 is showing after Dev 23 2024 and the sort is descending which doesn't work. The prior screenshot shows that when its sorted by Resolved field, the data aligns properly.

Interestingly its those same items that drop of my query when I filter based on the statusCategoryChangedDate field instead of the resolved field.

To me, this looks some weird behavior from the data within the statusCategoryChangedDate for these tasks, but the data populated in the screen looks accurate. Its only the JQL processing for the data in that field thats anomalous. 

Thanks again for your input.

[Trudy Claspill]

That is all good research. Thank you for sharing.

At this point, given that we haven't been able to recreate this in other Jira instances to which we have access, I recommend that you open a support case directly with Atlassian:

https://support.atlassian.com/contact/#/

With your permission they will be able to access your data directly and look at the backend to see if there is a problem specific to your instance.

It would be great if you report back here what you learn from them.

[Jayan_ Vishnu]

Thanks @Trudy Claspill. Appreciate the help.

Will follow up once I get an update from Atlassian support.