What happened to my work items after Migrating Company managed projects from Production to Sandbox

[Larry Lee]

I was migrated a Company managed project from Production to Sandbox as per the instructions from support.

When I went back to the project, none of the work items showed up in the Backlog, Active Sprint, or All Work sections. I was able to see them from the Timeline but had to go through the epics to do you. Using the search bar in All Work search did not come up with anything either. I was also able to find them in Lists. 

I checked some of the fields and most were added to the project like this: e.g. Test Case (migrated). 

Need help with this one. Much appreciated in advance.

[Ankita Mehta]

Hi @Larry Lee

Based on your description, it sounds like the work items did migrate, but they’re not appearing in views like Backlog or Active Sprint because of how the board is configured.

You’re able to see them in Timeline and Lists, which usually means they’re missing from your board due to filter or column settings — not because they failed to migrate. Here are a few things to check:

• Board filter query – Go to Board Settings > Filter Query and confirm it includes all relevant issue types and statuses (especially if some are labeled like “Test Case (migrated)”).
• Column mapping – In Board Settings > Columns, make sure all statuses from the migrated items are mapped. Items with unmapped statuses won’t appear in the board.
• Issue types included in the filter – Boards often show only a subset (like Story, Bug). If your migrated issues have new or custom types, they may be excluded by default.
• Field values or permissions – In some cases, missing required fields or permission issues can cause work items to be hidden from default views.

 Things to consider for future migrations

• Migrated issue types and statuses might not match what the destination project expects
• Custom workflows or field configurations may not align, causing visibility gaps
• Manually updating board filters post-migration is often necessary
• Bulk edits or field normalization may be needed to restore usability
• For larger projects, consider tools that support zero downtime and non-disruptive migration — so teams can continue working while the move happens in the background

If you’re planning more migrations and want to avoid cleanup work like this, you may consider Atlassian Solutions Partner and an enterprise - grade migration took like OpsHub Migration Manager (OMM) for zero downtime, non – disruptive and full fidelity migrations. It will help you preserve field mappings, statuses, and visibility rules across projects — making everything show up as expected right after the move.

Feel free to reach out in case you have any questions.

Good luck!

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello @Larry Lee 

Welcome to the Atlassian community.

Which support team did you contact?

Can you provide us with a copy or link to the instructions you used?

You say when you "went back to the project" information was missing. On which system (Production or Sandbox) were you viewing the project?

[Larry Lee]

Hi @Trudy Claspill Trudy! Thanks for responding.

I haven't reached a support team yet. Thought I'd might find the answer here with all the SMEs!

Here's the link to the instructions I used: https://support.atlassian.com/organization-administration/docs/copy-production-data-to-sandbox/

When I went to Sandbox, all the work items were missing in the Backlog, Active Sprints, and All Work sections. I could only see the items in the Timeline and List.

So weird. Never ran into anything like this whenever I've migrated to Sandbox. It doesn't matter if someone was using the new Beta version but I was migrating from the current version of Jira, does it?

[Trudy Claspill]

Hello Larry,

Thank you for the clarification.

Did you review the information about what is not copied when copying specific projects to see if that aligns with your experience in this case?

https://support.atlassian.com/organization-administration/docs/what-data-is-copied-to-sandboxes/

EDIT: You said in your last paragraph "using the new Beta version". The new Beta version of what, exactly? In Jira Cloud there is not a "beta" version of the application. There may be beta versions of specific features, and not all cloud instances are updated with changes simultaneously so there may be some functional differences between one cloud instance and another. 

[Larry Lee]

Hi @Trudy Claspill !

Yes, we reviewed that information from the Link and work items (standard and custom) carries over.

As far as the new Beta Version goes, I meant the Beta version of the Jira UI. My coworker is currently using it.