Project owner change is not saving due to missing Avatar in Jira Cloud
Platform Notice: Cloud Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps on the cloud platform.
Summary
Admin may encounter an issue in Jira Cloud where they are unable to change the Project Owner (Project Lead). When they attempt to save the updated Project Lead, the save action fails silently — nothing happens. This is caused by a missing or invalid project avatar, which prevents the project settings from saving.
Diagnosis
When the user try to change the project owner (Project Lead), Jira Cloud may display an error such as: Avatar with id 'XXXXX' does not exist.
Cause
This issue occurs when the project avatar is missing or invalid. As a result, saving changes to the project owner fails.
Solution
Follow these steps to resolve the issue and successfully change the project owner:
Go to your project’s sidebar and select Project settings.
Click Details.
Under the current avatar, select Change icon.
Upload a custom image or choose a default icon as the new project avatar.
Click Save to apply the new avatar.
Now, in the same Details section, update the Project lead field to the desired user.
Click Save to confirm the change.
If you still can't change the project owner after updating the avatar, make sure:
You have project admin or Jira admin permissions.
The user you want to assign as Project Lead is active in your Jira site.
If the problem persists, check for any error messages and contact Atlassian Support with the details.
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