Cloning an Issue

Cloning, or copying, an issue lets you quickly create a duplicate of an issue within the same project. The clone issue is a replica of the original issue, containing the same information stored in the original issue — e.g. Summary, Affects Versions, Components, etc. The clone issue can also be linked to the original issue.

A clone issue is a separate entity from the original issue. Operations on the original issue have no effect on the clone issue and vice versa. The only connection is a link – if created – between the original and the clone issue.

On this page:

A clone issue retains the following information:

  • Summary

  • Description
  • Assignee
  • Environment
  • Priority
  • Issue Type
  • Security
  • Reporter
    (If you do not have the Modify Reporter permission, the clone issue will be created with you as the Reporter.)
  • Components
  • Affects Versions
  • Fix For Versions
  • Issue Links (optional)
  • Attachments (optional)
  • Project
    (Once the clone has been saved, you can move it to another project as described in Moving an Issue.)

The content of custom fields is also cloned.

Currently, when you clone an issue, the values of the issue's current and closed sprints are also cloned. This is being tracked in  JSW-6541 - Getting issue details... STATUS . Please refer to Clear Sprint information when cloning JIRA issue for a workaround.

Things that aren't cloned:

  • Time tracking
  • Comments
  • Issue history
  • Links to Confluence pages

Statuses and resolutions of clone issues aren't cloned; however, the statuses return to the first step of the corresponding workflow, and the resolutions are cleared.

Creating a Clone Issue

To clone an issue:

  1. Open the JIRA issue you wish to clone.
  2. Select More > Clone. The Clone Issue screen will appear.
    • You can edit the clone issue's Summary if you wish.
    • If the issue contains links to other issue(s), you can select whether or not to include the links in the new clone issue.
    • If the issue contains sub-tasks, you can select whether or not to create the sub-tasks in the new clone issue.
    • If the issue contains attachments, you can select whether or not to include the attachments in the new clone issue.
  3. Click Create.

Cloned Issue Linking Behavior

By default, when an issue is cloned, JIRA automatically creates a link between the original and cloned issue using the pre-existing link type name 'Cloners'.

Cloned Issue Summary Field Prefix

By default, the Summary field of a cloned issue is prefixed with the string 'CLONE - ' to indicate that the issue is a clone.

Cloning and Sub-Tasks

Sub-Tasks can be cloned in the same manner as other issue types.

If the original issue has associated sub-tasks, that issue's sub-tasks will also be cloned. The summary of a cloned sub-task will also include the prefix specified in the properties file.

Last modified on May 3, 2016

Was this helpful?

Yes
No
Provide feedback about this article
Powered by Confluence and Scroll Viewport.