Why are there two different description fields?

[Kyle McGee]

I am having trouble locating why there would be two Description Fields available, especially since one of them I cannot edit? 

If I imported tickets previously, would it have uploaded an old field? I can only find one Description field, how can I check to see if I accidentally put the description field in twice?

[Michael Andolfatto · Accepted solution]

Hi @Kyle McGee ,

It looks like you have a custom field (the one you can find + edit) as well as the default system field. It should not have been created automatically via import but if you performed a migration there's a chance it could have been a byproduct of this. Most likely it was created by some other admin on your site manually.

You might be able to find a record for it in your cloud site's Audit Log if you search for the field name, though since it's quite generic there may be many records to sift through.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

That's what I would assume as well - an admin has (probably accidentally) imported a CSV file which included a "description" column and selected "create new field" instead of "map to system description field"

If that's the case, then go to Admin -> Custom Fields, and look through the list, you should find that there is one Description field in there - the system Description field will not appear in the list of custom fields (because it's not configured that way and can't be removed).  Best thing to do is rename it (slightly - I usually go for "Description." or mis-spell it slightly)

Ideally, you'll probably want to move the data in it to the system Description and then delete it.

[Kyle McGee]

@Nic Brough -Adaptavist- So I went and checked this, but it looks like even disabling Description from the Fields keeps it on there. Is there any way I can mass move all of the Description Fields on my existing tickets to another field? I have over 500 tickets I'm working with.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I'm afraid you'll need to script or automate that.  Or just rename the field to whatever you want to call it.