change the key of a Jira project

[Neeta Dubey]

Hi Team,

In our organisation we set primary key as project code however once the project is close we get new project code; so we setup similar project in jira, copy issues and just difference is of key

because of this process we have many unused project in JIRA. I got to know about edit primary key in jira. 

My question Is it a best practice to change the project key ?and instead of setting up new project shall i only edit one key and my task would be over?

[Tarun Sapra · Accepted solution]

Hello @Neeta Dubey

You can rename the project key but the old key is still there in the DB and you can't reuse it for another project.

Please see a similar question https://community.atlassian.com/t5/Jira-questions/After-renaming-project-old-key-not-available/qaq-p/194347

and this is how I managed to reuse old key

I had to free up the older project key "GREP" which was now "DSIT"

1) I copy the project and issues of DSIT to an temporary project with key "DSITEMP"

2)I deleted the DSIT project (only by deleting the project you can free up the older key which was "GREP"

3) Now, recreate the project with key DSIT and move all issues from DSITEMP to DSIT

4) Now since GREP key is free I can create a new project using the key which was earlier unavailable.

To copy the projects with issues I used the "copy project" built-in script from script runner plugin.

[Mohamed Benziane · Accepted solution]

Hi @Neeta Dubey

You can change the project key . But it won't change your issues they will always belong to the same project.

Regards

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist- · Accepted solution]

This sounds like a good case for changing the project key, yes.  It's far easier and better than creating a new project and moving the issues.

Just bear in mind that you can not re-use the old project key.