please associate an epic as a parent to your story when creating a story

[Saqib Barlas]

We have made no changes to our JIRA project , but now when we create story , we get this error : 

please associate an epic as a parent to your story 

If we do associate an epic , it still brings up the same message.  This does not happen on creating tasks , only stories and doesn't happen on any other JIRA projects in our estate.

This was working fine over a week ago.  I have also checked the mandatory fields for the story and the PARENT field is not mandatory (greyed out ad non mandatory)

Also , if I try and just import a simple story via CSV : 

summary,desc
Test, test desc

I get this error : 

2025-07-25 15:05:57,517 INFO - Only new items will be imported
2025-07-25 15:05:57,895 INFO - Importing work item: [externalId='autoid--5155576474699886810', summary='Test']
2025-07-25 15:05:58,057 ERROR - Error importing work item [externalId='autoid--5155576474699886810', summary='Test']: Unable to create issue: Test

[Maria Rusnakova · Accepted solution]

Hi @Saqib Barlas

could you check validator on the workflow used for Stories?

As Shawn already mentioned, there is probably a validator on the Create transition, it's possible that it was created in the past for Epic link.

We already had similar situation in one of our projects and although it didn't cause problems when Epic link was replaced by Parent field, after some updates it caused the same problem as you have now.

[Saqib Barlas]

Ok , found this issue, many thanks for pointing me in the right direction , for some reason we had a validator in the create transition for the required field of Parent not to be empty, just as you mentioned!  I have no idea of who put it there and when, 

 It also looks like the licence for JMWE has expired and that could have caused the issue to have suddenly surfaced.  I have removed the validator and now I can create stories .

See bellow for what was on the workflow : 

[Maria Rusnakova]

Hi @Saqib Barlas

happy to help :)

If you don't plan to prolong the JMWE licence, I recommend checking other workflow transitions and removing or updating all JMWE validators, conditions and post-functions to prevent similar issues.

If you don't remember where this add-on was used, the fastest way to find all of them will be to navigate to Jira Admin settings -> Apps -> Jira Misc workflow extensions ->  JMWE workflow extension.

[Trudy Claspill · Accepted solution]

Hello @Saqib Barlas 

Can you provide screen images showing:

- the screen with the error message when you are trying to create a story

- the Create transition from the workflow for the Story issue type in that project, showing the Validators/Rules section for the transition.

Lastly, what type of project does this concern? Get the project type information by clicking on the ... button next to the project name in the navigation panel.

[Saqib Barlas]

Hi @Trudy Claspill , thanks for this , ours is a Software project - Company-Managed .   See error message  : 

However, the issue was the transition on the workflow , @Maria Rusnakova 's answer and my reply to it explains it.   Thank you so much for reaching out , you were correct in me checking the workflow OPEN validator

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM · Accepted solution]

Hi @Saqib Barlas 

You have something in the workflow that isn't configured quite right.  In the Story workflow at the create transition look at what validators exist, it's likely there.  Do you have Scriptrunner? Look to see what behaviors are set.  If not that look at what addons you have that may be acting as a validator.

It's not unlikely that the way you had these setup worked fine and one of the many changes Atlassian has rolled out broke it.  The only recourse (well the only practical one) is to troubleshoot what is prompting the epic link message and fix it.

[Saqib Barlas]

Hi Shawn, 

No the workflow is simple with no script runner , nothing on there to restrict this .  It's strange that only our project is affected .

Has there been a Rollout that could have affected this?

[Saqib Barlas]

Actually when I checked it was the validator on the open workflow - I checked and it was the restriction.  I have removed it and now it works.