We couldn't update the work type error in a team-managed Jira Cloud project

Summary

After a migration, you are unable to reorder the fields in the Layout screen on a team-managed space. When you try to save your new layout changes, you see the error message below:

"We couldn't save your changes. We couldn't update the "<type>" work type. Refresh and try again."

Environment

Jira Cloud team-managed spaces

To reproduce the problem:

1. Log in to Jira

2. Access any team-managed space

3. Go to Work types

4. In the context field section, try to reorder the fields

5. Fields will not get reordered, and the error appears in the UI

Solution

The most common cause of this error is a field being duplicated in the layout, and being listed more than once. In our example, the Sprint field appears twice in the layout editor.

Check browser development tools for detailed error

In your browser's development tools, you may see a more detailed error message.

For example, in Chrome's Network tab, it is clear that the error message was encountered due to a problem with the Sprint field, based on this detailed error:

"Sprint": "simplified-project-settings.issue-type.update.field.not-editable"

Please note: you may see other fields mentioned here. The problem is still likely a duplicated field in the layout.

Remove any duplicated fields from the layout editor

Check for any fields listed as errors in your browser's development tools. In our case, since Sprint appears twice in the layout, we'll remove one of them.

After we remove one of the Sprint fields, the remaining fields can be reordered, and the layout saves successfully.