Summary

Sometimes the creation date of a work item may need to be modified after the work has been created. This article covers how to do this using the CSV import functionality as described in Importing data from CSV.

Use CSV import to update existing work items

Using the CSV import functionality, if you import work items that already exist, an update will be performed on those issues instead of replacing them. We're going to edit the CSV to edit the created date.

First, identify the list of affected work. JQL can do this to return work item keys and summaries as per Advanced searching.

To update an issue, you will need three fields: Key, Created, and Summary. Ensure that your CSV includes these fields. We've included an example CSV file below. 

key, created, summary
TST-30002,"30/11/13 00:00",TEST

In this example we're going to update TST-30002 to have a created date of 30/11/13 00:00. The summary can be taken from the search results (you can also export the results to Excel and convert that to CSV).

1. Navigate to the CSV import page (External System Import > Pick CSV Import)
   1.   Note that the Import from CSV from the drop-down menu of the Work at the top panel does not carry this functionality to update existing work items
2. Select the CSV file
   1. If you are not using a comma as the delimiter, change the delimiter on the expanded Advanced tab
3. Select the affected project and set the date and time to dd/MM/yy HH:mm (this is following the format used in step 2)
4. Map the fields as follows:
   1. Created → Date Created
   2. Key → Work item key
   3. Summary → Summary

5. Click next and import will begin, there will be a message stating that no work has been created on the top panel

   1. For specific details, check the import log, it should be something like the one below:

      2014-12-05 11:47:31,706 INFO - Import started by admin using com.atlassian.jira.plugins.importer.imports.csv.CsvDataBean
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,721 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,721 INFO - Importing: Users
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,721 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,721 INFO - Only new items will be imported
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,723 INFO - 0 users associated with import. 0 new users were created and imported as active.
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,724 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,724 INFO - Finished Importing : Users
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,724 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,724 INFO - 0 users successfully created.
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,724 INFO - Retrieving projects...
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - Project ExternalProject{id=null, externalName=null, name=null, key=TST, url=null, lead=null, description=null, projectCategoryName=null, avatarUrl=null, assigneeType=null, versionCount=0, componentCount=0, issueCount=0} already exists. Not imported
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - Importing: Versions
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - Only new items will be imported
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - Finished Importing : Versions
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - Importing: Components
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,725 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,726 INFO - Only new items will be imported
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,726 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,726 INFO - Finished Importing : Components
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,726 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,726 INFO - Retrieving custom fields...
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,726 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,726 INFO - Importing: Issues
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,726 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,726 INFO - Only new items will be imported
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,730 INFO - Importing issue: ExternalIssue{externalId=autoid-4193393516778628371, summary=TEST, issueType=null}
      2014-12-05 11:47:31,943 INFO - Reindexing last 1 issues imported ...
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,214 INFO - Reindexing took 269 ms.
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,214 INFO - 1 issues successfully created
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,214 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,214 INFO - Finished Importing : Issues
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,214 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,215 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,215 INFO - Importing: Issue Links & Subtasks
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,215 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,215 INFO - Only new items will be imported
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,219 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,220 INFO - Finished Importing : Issue Links & Subtasks
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,220 INFO - ------------------------------
      2014-12-05 11:47:32,220 INFO - No issues need to be reindexed.

6. Validate whether the Created timestamp has changed on affected work items