Why is the "Epic Status" locked?

[Nataly Rios Goico]

Hello,

I'm trying to mark certain Epics as done to remove them from the backlog, but I'm unable to do so. I get a pop-up saying I don't have any permissions. When I go to custom fields, I see the Epic status field is locked.

Why is it locked and how can I unlock it? Also, I've read that if I unlock it, I could break the operation of JIRA Software, which of course I don't want to do...

Can anyone help me with this please :) ?

[Craig Nodwell · Accepted solution]

Hi @Nataly Rios Goico yes that field is locked because it is a system field.  If you do not have the permission to move the Epic then going into the system to hack out the field is not how you would go about getting around it.  I would ask the question why don't you have the permission to move the Epic into a Done status. 

[Nataly Rios Goico]

Great, thank you! That's all I would like to do, but I can't find the permission I need. I have Admin permissions, and "Edit issues" permissions, is there anything else I'm missing?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

In the project the Epic is in, you'll need "transition issues", not just "edit"

[Nataly Rios Goico]

Thank you for this. I found the problem was actually related to the workflow. I closed the epic ticket but it still appeared in my backlog. I then tried to mark it as "done" in the backlog and wasn't allowed to. I had to reopen the Epic, then mark it as "done", and then go back to the Epic Jira and close it. It doesn't make much sense though :) 

Thanks again.

[Trudy Claspill]

What I have done to avoid having to use the Mark As Done option on Epics is modify the Workflow for the Epic so that it automatically sets the Epic Status field to Done when the Status of the Epic is set to "done", and then to reset the Epic Status field to "To Do" if the Status of the Epic is changed from "done" to another "not-done" status. That alleviates having to mess around with the Mark As Done option.

You could also use Automation Rules to keep the Status and Epic Status fields of an Epic in synch.