How to Fix Jira Resolution Issues Across All Platforms

Platform Notice: Cloud and Data Center - This article applies equally to both cloud and data center platforms.

Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.

*Except Fisheye and Crucible

Summary

This article outlines the issues that can occur when a Resolution field is incorrectly set in Jira and what actions can be taken to resolve these situations.

Solution

When a Resolution is incorrectly set, we can see the following:

  • Newly Created or Reopened Issues will show as strikethrough ( example: KEY-1234 ) on:

    • the Activity Stream

    • when Linked to Other Issues or Confluence Pages

    • Agile boards do not show "resolved" issues

  • On Service Management related projects, the Customer Survey may be sent inadvertently when the Customer initially creates their request

    • Or may not send if the Resolution Field is not set

  • "Done" Issues are not removed from Scrum or Kanban Boards when Sprints are Completed or Versions are Released

  • In Portfolio, "Done" issues without a Resolution do not show on the Plan

  • Some Jira reports are not working or returned zero or empty report.

We've been able to identify 4 states a Jira Issue can be in:

  1. Resolved

    1. This would be the Correct State for issues that are considered "Resolved"; ie Done, Completed, Resolved, Closed, etc

  2. Unresolved

    1. This would be the Correct State for issues that are considered being "Worked On"; ie In Progress, To Do, Open, etc

  3. Should be Resolved (ie Closed status with Unresolved resolution) - Click here if your Configure resolutions in a Jira workflow

    1. This can occur when a POST Function or Screen does not occur on the Resolve Issue Transition

      1. Resolution is set on a Transition

        1. A POST Function is added to the "Resolve Issue" transition so that the Resolution is set automatically to a specified value

      2. Allow a User to Choose a Resolution

        1. A Screen on the "Resolve Issue" transition contains the Resolution Field which will allow the user to select the appropriate value

  4. Should be Unresolved (ie New Issue or Issue Reopened) - Click here if your Remove resolution from Jira issues that aren't actually resolved

    1. This can occur when an Issue is Reopened or with misconfigured Screens

      1. Resolution Field is added to All Screens

        1. this also brings in the event where a Custom "Unresolved" Resolution is added - This is NOT needed as Jira treats an Empty Resolution Field as Unresolved - this Custom "Unresolved" is value for the Resolution field and will be treated by Jira as Resolved.

        2. Potentially a newly created issue will have a Resolution upon creation

      2. Custom created "Reopen" Transition that does not have a POST Function to clear the Resolution

        1. Resolution is only clearable via POST Function

        2. Customer may have added the Resolution field to a "Reopen" screen with a Custom "Unresolved" Resolution

Updated on June 19, 2025

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