Can't see users when editing assignee in Jira cloud even with permissions
Platform Notice: Cloud Only - This article only applies to Atlassian apps on the cloud platform.
Summary
A user can't see or add another user to the assignee field of work items in Jira Cloud projects.
Diagnosis
This article assumes you have already confirmed Browse users and groups (global) and Assignable User (project) — see the article below. Only if both are correct is the cause a userbase sync issue, which the steps below fix.
Cause
Jira's database is out of sync, or indexing is required. This can be caused when a Jira userbase is particularly large, or has undergone significant additions during a Cloud migration.
Solution
Manually remove and re-add the user to the Jira default group
Removing and re-adding the user manually triggers a sync, which resolves the issue.
This is safe and does not remove the user's Atlassian account — it only toggles group membership, which re-triggers the Jira user-directory sync. Re-add to the same group immediately.
Navigate to admin.atlassian.com
Identify the Jira default group
Search for the user under the Users section
Remove the user from the default access group
Re-add the user to the default access group
This process will trigger a sync. Within a few minutes, the sync will complete, and the issue should resolve.
If many users are affected
A single-user toggle won't scale. Note that a large-scale directory desync usually resolves after the migration's post-import sync completes; if it persists across many users after 24h, raise a support ticket rather than toggling every user.
How do I know it worked?
Re-open the assignee field for one previously-affected user — they should now appear in auto-suggest.
Was this helpful?