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Unable to delete an inactive workflow

Eddie Hobart
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May 7, 2025

I have a workflow that's no longer useful but I'm unable to delete it. It's not associated with any project, nor is it associated with a workflow scheme. Other similar workflows that are also inactive can be deleted, but not this one. Any ideas?

5 answers

1 vote
Stephen_Lugton
Community Champion
May 7, 2025

@Eddie Hobart do you see a delete button by the workflow you want to delete?

This article may help: https://support.atlassian.com/jira/kb/delete-option-is-not-available-for-inactive-workflows/ 

Stephen_Lugton
Community Champion
May 7, 2025

It's also possible that the workflow is associated with a draft workflow schema that hasn't been published

Eddie Hobart
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May 7, 2025

There's no delete button provided. The others in the same scenario do have it.
I'm not sure how to view a draft workflow scheme, but I don't think I have any going right now.

0 votes
Dilip
Atlassian Team
Atlassian Team members are employees working across the company in a wide variety of roles.
May 8, 2025

are you getting any error message when trying to delete this workflow or the delete button is inactive for you, please share the screenshot?

0 votes
John Funk
Community Champion
May 7, 2025

Hi Eddie,

Please provide a screenshot of what you see. 

Eddie Hobart
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May 7, 2025

image.png

The Story Workflow is the issue. The rest that you see there all have the delete option in the menu.

John Funk
Community Champion
May 7, 2025

Weird - I certainly can't duplicate the problem. 

But here is my suspicion - the workflow is indeed associated with a Scheme, but the scheme hasn't been published. 

So go to the list of Schemes  - both Active and Inactive and see if the workflow is listed for any of them. Also, look for the icon of the i with a circle around it - that might be the scheme in question. 

Eddie Hobart
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May 7, 2025

Very strange.


There are several workflow schemes that have the circled "i" icon, but they have nothing to do with the workflow in question nor is the icon interactable.

If I search for the workflow across all active and inactive schemes it doesn't appear.

John Funk
Community Champion
May 7, 2025

Start with those with the icon and publish them or delete them and see what happens. 

0 votes
Jaime Escribano
Contributor
May 7, 2025

Hi Eddie.

 

Is it possible that it's one of the default workflows that come from the instance?

Default configuration doesn't really like being deleted 

Eddie Hobart
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May 7, 2025

I've been doing a lot of work recently, but I really doubt it's the default scheme. Any way I can check? The name has been customized.

0 votes
Trudy Claspill
Community Champion
May 7, 2025

Hello @Eddie Hobart 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

What happens when you try to delete it?

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