Creating or deleting issues in Jira fails with NullPointerException
Platform notice: Server and Data Center only. This article only applies to Atlassian products on the Server and Data Center platforms.
Support for Server* products ended on February 15th 2024. If you are running a Server product, you can visit the Atlassian Server end of support announcement to review your migration options.
*Except Fisheye and Crucible
Summary
A NullPointerException error is thrown when trying to create or delete issues:
Environment
Any Jira version.
Diagnosis
A stacktrace similar to the following may be thrown in the UI when trying to delete an issue:
java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.atlassian.jira.issue.IssueFactory$1.transform(IssueFactory.java:79)
at org.apache.commons.collections.CollectionUtils.collect(CollectionUtils.java:632)
at org.apache.commons.collections.CollectionUtils.collect(CollectionUtils.java:610)
at org.apache.commons.collections.CollectionUtils.collect(CollectionUtils.java:575)
at com.atlassian.jira.issue.index.DefaultIndexManager.reIndexIssueObjects(DefaultIndexManager.java:362)
at com.atlassian.jira.issue.index.DefaultIndexManager.reIndex(DefaultIndexManager.java:382)
at com.atlassian.jira.issue.index.DefaultIndexManager.reIndex(DefaultIndexManager.java:375)
at sun.reflect.GeneratedMethodAccessor1258.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at com.atlassian.util.profiling.object.ObjectProfiler.profiledInvoke(ObjectProfiler.java:83)
at com.atlassian.jira.config.component.SwitchingInvocationHandler.invoke(SwitchingInvocationHandler.java:28)
at com.sun.proxy.$Proxy131.reIndex(Unknown Source)
at com.atlassian.jira.issue.link.DefaultIssueLinkManager.reindexLinkedIssues(DefaultIssueLinkManager.java:149)
at com.atlassian.jira.issue.link.DefaultIssueLinkManager.removeIssueLinkInternal(DefaultIssueLinkManager.java:240)The following WARN/ERROR messages appear in the atlassian-jira.log:
2015-08-15 21:37:52,193 http-bio-9002-exec-21 WARN xxx 1297x29965x1 yyy 10.28.0.12,127.0.0.1 /browse/BGBD-65 [jira.issue.link.LinkCollectionImpl] Issue [id=29010] links to a non-existing issue!
...
2015-08-15 21:38:12,302 http-bio-9002-exec-42 ERROR xxx 1298x30005x1 yyy 10.28.0.12,127.0.0.1 /secure/QuickCreateIssue.jspa [jira.quickedit.action.QuickCreateIssue] java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
at com.atlassian.jira.issue.link.DefaultIssueLinkManager.getIssueLink(DefaultIssueLinkManager.java:493)
at com.atlassian.jira.issue.link.DefaultIssueLinkManager.createIssueLink(DefaultIssueLinkManager.java:101)Cause
This is a data integrity issue. There may be some issue links pointing to non-existent Jira issue IDs in the database.
Solution
This can be fixed by running Jira's Database Integrity Checker:
- Navigate to Jira Administration > System > SYSTEM SUPPORT > Integrity checker
- Ensure that all options under 'Check Issue Relations' are selected, and then click the 'Check' button.
- Click on 'Fix' to fix all the errors found.