Cannot start sprint with error "There can only be one active sprint"
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Summary
When an administrator tries to start a sprint, an error indicates "There can only be one active sprint on each board" with no other Sprints showing on this board.
Solution
Solutions
The Sprint you're trying to start was created on another board, which includes Issues from another Project. It is recommended that Sprints be created on the appropriate Project Board rather than on a Global Board. This prevents crossover of projects on a single sprint.
Remove and re-create the sprint on a project-specific board
The sprint that is generating the "There can only be one active sprint on each board" error must be deleted and re-created on a board that includes only issues from that single project.
Go to the sprint's origin Board (see the steps on finding the origin board via SQL below)
Remove the sprint that generates the error
Go to the Project-specific board and re-create the sprint
Enable parallel sprints in your Jira instance
This error only occurs when parallel sprints are disabled in Jira. If you wish to run multiple active sprints on your boards simultaneously, you can simply enable parallel sprints.
For instructions, please refer to our documentation on using parallel sprints.
Common causes
This issue is likely to occur when there is a single "global board" which includes many projects and is used to create/manage multiple sprints.
Example Scenario:
One board named "All Sprints" was created to show All Issues and Sprints within the environment
Project A and Project B both exist with their own boards
Project B has issues in an active sprint which displays on Project B's board
A sprint (Project A - Sprint) was created while viewing the "All Sprints" board
On Project A's Board, the sprint Project A - Sprint is visible but it cannot be started and generates the error "There can only be one active sprint on each board"
Even if Project A Sprint includes issues only from Project A the error still occurs when the sprint is started on Project A's board
Identify the origin board of the Sprint
To identify the board from which Sprint was created (origin board), use the following SQL query:
⚠️ Notes:
Make sure to replace <SPRINT_NAME> with the name of the Sprint
The SQL query above was built and tested for a PostgreSQL database - if you are using any other type of database, you will need to make the necessary tweaks to work on your database
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select R."NAME" as BoardName, R."ID" as BoardID, S."NAME" as SprintName, S."ID" as SprintID
from "AO_60DB71_RAPIDVIEW" R
join "AO_60DB71_SPRINT" S on R."ID" = S."RAPID_VIEW_ID"
where S."NAME" = '<SPRINT_NAME>';This SQL query will return the name and the ID of the board that the Sprint came from, as well as the name and the ID of the Sprint.
Example of SQL query and output below. This query tells us that the sprint "Project A - Sprint" was originally created from Board ID 7 with the name "All Sprints"
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select R."NAME" as BoardName, R."ID" as BoardID, S."NAME" as SprintName, S."ID" as SprintID
from "AO_60DB71_RAPIDVIEW" R
join "AO_60DB71_SPRINT" S on R."ID" = S."RAPID_VIEW_ID"
where S."NAME" = 'Sprint issues';
boardname | boardid | sprintname | sprintid
--------------+---------+---------------------------+----------
All Sprints | 7 | Project A - Sprint | 5
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