Can't delete files from attachment panel in Jira Cloud

Summary

Understand why you can't delete an attachment from the panel in Jira Cloud.

Solution

Attachments added via comments or fields

By design, you can't delete a file via the attachment panel if it was added to the work item by a comment or field. This is as informed in Jira documentation Delete an attachment in a work item: If that’s the case, find the field or comment the attachment was added to and delete it from there.

Identify how the attachment was added to the work item

When you hover over the file in the attachment panel, you'll see an eye icon.

Hover over this icon to see a note that allows to identify where the attachment comes from. When an attachment is added:

• by Comment or Description: Go to the comment with this Attachment

• using a Custom field: You can find this attachment in the custom field field

Delete attachment added as comment

In the attachment panel, click the eye icon in the file you want to delete. This will take you to the comment where the file is stored. Note that, as also informed in the documentation linked above: Deleting a comment with an attachment removes the attachment from the whole work item. If someone has copied the attachment from one comment to another, it will also delete from the second comment.

Delete attachment added by custom field

If the attachment was added through a custom field, use the field name shown in the attachment panel to locate the field and manually remove the file.

If you can't find it, validate that field is available on the Edit and View work item screen by using Find Your field feature. If the field if the field is not available, refer to add a custom field to a screen to add the field to the screen associated with editing issues for that work type. Once the field is available, manually remove the file from it.