You need to have the project-specific Administer Projects project permission or the Jira Administrator global permission to be able to:

• Add — create a new version against which issues can be aligned.
• Release — mark a version as released.
• Archive — hide an old version from the Releases report, and in the user interface.
• Delete — remove a version. You must choose an action for any issues with that version.
• Merge — combine multiple versions into one.
• Reschedule — re-arrange the order of versions.

Once a version has been created for a project, the 'Affects version' and 'Fix version' fields will become available for your issues. If you cannot see these fields on your issue, your project may not have any version yet, or the fields are hidden from view.

Managing a project's versions

The easiest way to manage a project's versions is through the Versions page.

1. Choose Administration () > Projects, and click the name of the project.
2. Choose Versions in the sidebar. The Versions page is displayed, showing a list of versions.
   

   Screenshot: The 'Versions' page

   

The Versions page is a visual representation of how your versions are progressing. The data represented is taken from the Fix Version/s field, and shows the status of the issues assigned to that version. 

Add a new version

1. The Add Version form is located at the top of the 'Versions' page.
2. Enter the name for the version. The name can be:
   • simple numeric, e.g. "2.1", or
   • complicated numeric, e.g. "2.1.3", or
   • a word, such as the project's internal code-name, e.g. "Memphis".
3. Optional details such as the version description (text not HTML), start date and release date (i.e. the planned release date for a version) can be also be specified. These can be changed later if required.
4. Click the Add button. You can drag the new version to a different position by hovering over the 'drag' icon  at the left of the version name.

Release a version

1. On the 'Versions' page, hover over the relevant version to display the cog icon, then select Release from the drop-down menu.
2. If there are any issues set with this version as their 'Fix For' version, Jira allows you to choose to change the 'Fix For' version if you wish. Otherwise, the operation will complete without modifying these issues.

Archive a version

1. On the 'Versions' page, hover over the relevant version to display the cog icon, then select Archive from the drop-down menu.
2. The version list indicates the version 'archived' status with a semi-transparent icon. No further changes can be made to this version unless it is un-archived. Also it is not possible to remove any existing archived versions from an issue's affected and fix version fields or add any new archived versions.

Delete a version

1. On the 'Versions' page, hover over the relevant version to display the cog icon, then select Delete from the drop-down menu.
2. This will bring you to the 'Delete Version: <Version>' confirmation page. From here, you can specify the actions to be taken for issues associated with the version to be deleted. You can either associate these issues with another version, or simply remove references to the version to be deleted.

Merge multiple versions

Merging multiple versions allows you to move the issues from one or more versions to another version.

1. On the 'Versions' page, click the Merge link at the top right of the page.
2. The 'Merge Versions' popup will be displayed. On this page are two select lists — both listing all un-archived versions. 
   In the 'Merging From Versions' select list, choose the version(s) whose issues you wish to move. Versions selected on this list will be removed from the system. All issues associated with these versions will be updated to reflect the new version selected in the 'Merge To Version' select list. It is only possible to select one version to merge to.
3. Click the Merge button. If you are shown a confirmation page, click Merge again to complete the operation.

Reschedule a version

Recheduling a version changes its place in the order of versions.

• On the 'Versions' page, click the  icon for the relevant version, and drag it to its new position in the version order.