How to find comment timestamps stored in Jira's database
Platform Notice: Data Center Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps 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
In Jira Data Center, when viewing the comments of an issue, there is a timestamp associated with it that represents its created date.
There are alternative ways to retrieve this information. One such method is by querying directly against Jira's database tables.
Environment
Tested in Jira Data Center 9.4.1.
Solution
It is possible to view the created and updated timestamps of comments from Jira's database by performing these steps:
Always back up your data before making any database modifications. If possible, test any alter, insert, update, or delete SQL commands on a staging server first.
Atlassian does not support customers performing direct data manipulation of application databases as they can easily lead to data integrity problems with Jira.
Refer to the SQL Queries section in our Atlassian Support Offerings page for further details on what support can be provided.
1) Stop Jira.
2) Log into the database.
3) Run this query to see a list of most recently created comments:
jiraaction
SELECT ID, ISSUEID, AUTHOR, ACTIONTYPE, ACTIONBODY, CREATED, UPDATED, UPDATEAUTHOR
FROM JIRAACTION
ORDER BY CREATED DESC; 4) You can tie the issueid from this table to the jiraissue table's id column to confirm the comment an issue is associated with.
5.) Start Jira and confirm the comment's created timestamp matches in the database and issue view.
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