User is not valid for this user picker while creating Jira Cloud work item

Summary

When creating a new work item in Jira Cloud, the following error appears:

This problem is usually reported when any "User picker" custom field associated with that screen has an invalid username set as the default value.

Solution

Confirm which custom field throws the error

We need to first identify the relevant custom field:

1. Open your browser's development tools

   • Instructions for Google Chrome and Apple Safari

2. Switch to the Network tab

3. Replicate the error message

4. Look for any HTTP 400 response codes

   • An example HTTP 400 might look like the following:

   • Request URL: https://<Cloud Site>.atlassian.net/rest/api/2/issue Request Method: POST Status Code: 400

5. Identify the custom field details from the response tab from this endpoint call.

   • You will see an error message similar to the following:

   • {"errorMessages":[],"errors":{"customfield_15240":"User 'User ' is not valid for this user picker."

In our example, the problematic custom field has the ID number 15240. Now that we have identified the custom field ID, we can directly visit the page in Jira that controls the Contexts and Default value for the field.

1. Visit the following URL, replacing <yoursite> with your Jira Cloud site URL, and <customfield> with the ID number from the previous step:

   • https://<yoursite>.atlassian.net/secure/admin/ConfigureCustomField!default.jspa?customFieldId=<customfield>

2. On the page, select Edit default value

3. Remove any values from the box, and select Set Default

Now that there is no default value for your chosen field, try creating the work item again.