Some issue types are missing when creating a new Jira issue from the the Board view

Summary

The purpose of this article is to list the most common reasons why some issue types are missing when creating a new Jira issue from a Board, via the Create issue button located at the bottom of the Backlog (or at the bottom of a Sprint), and how to identify them.

Environment

Jira Software Data Center on any version from 8.0.0.

Diagnosis

• Check the issue type that is missing from the Create Issue button from the Backlog panel:

  • If the only issue type that is missing is the Epic type, then it is expected behavior by design

  • Please refer to the Root Cause 1 section for more details

• Go to the Board configuration page and check the filter query:

  • If the filter query includes only specific issue types, then Root Cause 2 is relevant.

    • Example JQL: "Project = SCRUM AND issuetype = BUG"

  • If the filter query is not excluding any issue type, but there is an OR operator with an issuetype condition on 1 side, then Root Cause 3 might be relevant.

    • Example JQL: "project = SCRUM AND (component = Component1 OR issuetype in (bug))"

• Go to the board and try to create a new issue in the top Sprint panel, or in the Backlog panel:

  • If you see that the issue type dropdown is cropped in the UI, then Root Cause 4 is relevant.

Cause

Root Cause 1 - The missing issue type is Epic

Issues of type Epic cannot be created in the backlog. This is expected by design. Instead, Epics need to be created via the Epics panel located on the left side.

Root Cause 2 - The board filter query is excluding some issue types

If the board filter is configured to only include specific issue types, it will only be possible to create new issues from the backlog that belong to these types. This behavior is expected by design.

Root Cause 3 - The board filter query is not excluding any issue type but we are hitting a Jira bug

The Backlog Create Issue button may exclude some issue types, depending on the Board filter query, even if the query does not explicitly exclude them. For example, if the filter query uses an OR operator with a condition relying on the issue type on either side, the Board will incorrectly interpret this filter and exclude issue types by mistake.

This behavior has been reported as a bug: JRASERVER-73245 - Creating issues Inline on the backlog view does not respects issue types restrictions.

Root Cause 4 - The issue type dropdown is cropped due to a Jira bug

Depending on how many issue types are available on the board, the issue type dropdown might end up being cropped at the top when creating an issue either from the top Sprint panel or from the Backlog panel.

This behavior is tracked in 2 bugs:

• JSWSERVER-21284 - Issue type list is partially hidden when creating issue inline from a Sprint on a Scrum board

• JSWSERVER-25485 - Not all issue types shown when creating issues from kanban or scrum backlog

Solution

Solution for Root Cause 1

To create an Epic from a board, hover over the EPICS panel on the left. A "+" sign will appear, and clicking it will trigger the pop-up screen to create an Epic.

Solution for Root Cause 2 and 3

Edit the Board filter query by removing the issue type condition, or by including more issue types.

Solution for Root Cause 4

For this scenario, the only way to create new issues for the missing issue types is to create them outside the board, for example via the Create button from the Top Bar menu.