Transfer user data to another user, including assigned work items

Summary

In Jira Cloud, team structure or personnel changes commonly necessitate transferring user data, including assigned work items, from one user to another.

Solution

Transferring data from one user to another in Jira Cloud involves several steps, especially ensuring all relevant information, such as work items and permissions, is correctly reassigned.

This is different from updating a user's email. Refer to the Change Atlassian Account Email Address guide to update or change a user's email address.

Below is a step-by-step guide tailored for an administrator to transfer data between users in Jira cloud. Let's assume we have two users - old_user and new_user

Step 1: Review Existing permissions and groups

Before you start transferring data, review the user's current permissions and group memberships.

Group Memberships - Manage Groups

• Go to Jira Administration > User management.

• Find the user whose data must be transferred and review their group memberships.

• Assign the groups that old_user belongs to to new_user.

Permissions - Jira Permissions are managed in two sections, namely;

• Manage Project Permissions - Specific to each project and managed by the permission schemes associated with the project.

• Manage Global Permissions - System-wide permissions that are granted to groups of users.

Step 2: Transfer project roles

If the old_user had specific project roles, you'd need to manually add the new_user to these roles.

• Go to Jira settings > Projects and select a project.

• Under Users and roles, find the roles the old_user was part of and add the new_user to these roles.

• Remove the old user if they are no longer needed in these roles.

Although using the Jira REST API endpoint, you can use the endpoints to get the list of project roles:

rest/api/2/project/{projectIdOrKey}/role

Once you have all the roles in the project, you can use the endpoint below to get all users who belong to this role

/rest/api/2/project/{projectIdOrKey}/role/{id}

Step 3: Reassign work items

You can use the bulk change feature to transfer all work items from old_user to new_user.

• Go to the work item search page in Jira.

• Run a query to find all work items assigned to the old_user. For example, assignee = old_user.

• Select the Tools > Bulk change work items (selects all work items on all pages).

• Select Edit Work Items and then change the Assignee to new_user.

• Complete the bulk operation by following the prompts.

Step 4: Update reporters and watchers

For work items where the old_user is the reporter, you must perform a similar bulk change operation in Step 3 above.

• For reporters, repeat the bulk edit but change the Reporter field instead of the Assignee.

For work items where the old_user is a Watcher, Jira does not support bulk changing watchers through the Jira user interface.

• You might need to do this manually for each work item. Alternatively, you can use Jira Automation to update the Watcher.

• The community post Bulk update/change watcher provides the steps using Jira Automation to update the watcher.

Step 5: Transfer the dashboard and filter ownership

If the old_user owns any shared filters or dashboards, transfer ownership to the new_user.

• Navigate to Jira Settings > System

• Scroll down to Shared Items. Select Filters or Dashboards.

• Select or search for the relevant filter or dashboard.

• Select (...) > Change Ownership to assign these to the new_user.

You can refer to the guide Manage Filters and Manage Dashboards

Step 6: Reassign comments and worklogs

Unfortunately, neither operation is currently supported within Jira Cloud. There are feature requests below to address both capabilities:

• Comments - Add the ability to migrate comments from one user to another.

• Worklogs - Move work logs to another user

Step 7: Final verification

Ensure that all data has been correctly transferred and that the new_user has the same access and visibility as the old_user.

• Review the work items, project roles, and shared configurations to verify everything is correctly assigned.

Optional: Deactivate the old user account

If the old_user no longer uses Jira, consider deactivating their account to maintain security and licensing control.

• Go to Jira settings > User management, select the old_user, and select Deactivate account.

These steps cover a comprehensive transfer of responsibilities and data from one user to another in Jira Cloud. Depending on your specific needs and the Jira apps installed, some steps may require additional tools or scripts.