How to delete sprints from deleted projects or boards
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Data Center platform.
Note that this KB was created for the Data Center version of the product. Data Center KBs for non-Data-Center-specific features may also work for Server versions of the product, however they have not been tested. 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
After deleting a project or board in Jira, the Sprints that were originated or were being used in those are not removed from Jira, which may leave traces of them still identifiable through JQLs, or issue data. This article is meant to help you to remove this information from your instance in case it is no longer required or causes questions among your teams.
We also have an open report in order to change this behavior on the application, which you may be interested in voting and following for updates on this matter.
JSWSERVER-11263 - After a Board Is Deleted, Related Sprints Remain Active
Solution
To start it is relevant to mention that, in Jira, sprints are not tied to a specific project or board, this means that a sprint will appear and may be used on any board(s). In order to be able to utilize the sprint on a board of your choosing, you only need to have one of the issues from the board filter assigned to the said sprint, which is how we'll be able to remove them after their original source was deleted.
ℹ️ Important note: We can only delete sprints that have not yet been started, or that have already been completed. Sprints that are active cannot be removed, and must first be completed before their removal.
Associating the Sprint with the new board
Create a new temporary project on your instance.
ℹ️ Make sure that you have the 'Manage Sprints' permission on this project.
Access/create a Scrum board on this project.
From the Backlog page, create a new temporary issue.
Edit the issue and update the Sprint field with the sprint you want to delete.
➕ You may need to include the Sprint field in the Edit screen for this project. For this you may also refer to the Field Helper functionality.
After saving the changes to the issue, the sprint should appear on your board.
At this stage, we'll be able to verify the status of the Sprint in order to choose our next steps.
Example:
If the Sprint has the ACTIVE label, it has been started but not yet concluded.
If the Sprint doesn't have this label, it has not yet been started.
Already started sprints
Access the board in which you've linked the issue to the Sprint you want to delete.
If you have more than one active sprint on the board, click on Switch sprint in the top-left corner, and select the one you want to remove.
ℹ️ If you have only one active sprint on the board (the one you want to remove), skip to the next step.
Now click on Complete sprint on the top right corner.
You should be re-directed to the report for the completed sprint, but if you are not, go to the Reports tab for the project.
Select the sprint you want to remove (if not yet selected)
Using the ... menu on the right, delete the sprint.
Not yet started sprints
Go to the backlog page of the project
Click on '...' on the right-hand side of the sprint and delete it.
➕ You may repeat either of these set of steps until you delete all sprints you require.
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