"Epic Link" empty in "Issue Navigator" for sub-tasks which are in the Epic

[Sean Roberts]

In the Issue Navigator, the "Epic Link" column is empty for sub-tasks which are in an Epic. This is seen on Jira Server and Jira Cloud.

How to reproduce:

• Create Epic
• Create an issue in the Epic
• Create a sub-task in the issue
• Go to the Issue Navigator

[Jack Brickey · Accepted solution]

Hi Sean, welcome to the Community.

Sub-tasks do not have Epic Links. They belong to a Story that has an Epic Link.

[Sean Roberts]

Jack - That's exactly the problem I'm reporting. They belong to an issue which is in an Epic, and therefore they are also apart of that Epic. But the Issue Navigator doesn't show them in the Epic.

When viewing the The Issue Navigator you should be able to have a column that shows all issues in an Epic, including sub-tasks. (See screenshot in my post).

[Jack Brickey]

Hi Sean, understood. I was simply stating that this is in fact as designed. There are a number of threads in the Community discussing how to query for all issues including sub-tasks within an epic. Below are a few but you may wish to search for others:

• How-do-we-extract-all-issues-with-their-sub-tasks-linked-to-an-epic 
• Scriptrunner-JQL-for-all-issues-and-sub-tasks-for-an-Epic 

[Sean Roberts]

Thanks for the options. Would you agree this is an improvement that should be made in the issue list and potentially JQL?

It's true that you can't set the Epic on a sub-task, but that is because they are part of an issue which is in an Epic, from a user standpoint sub-tasks do have an Epic associated with them.

They are sub-tasks within an issue which is in an Epic. Therefore, they are part of that Epic and to have the "Epic Link" column empty in an issue list is not accurate.

Many Jira users manage their issues by Epic. Such as Epic lists. Scrum/Kanban boards and so on. If sub-tasks do not show-up, then a lot is being missed.

[Jack Brickey]

Hi Sean, sure I could see where it would be useful. I did a quick search for suggestions on JAC and found this issue but there are others too so you might wish to do a bit of searching and vote/watch any that align with your needs. JSWCLOUD-8181