Jira custom field description can't exceed 255 characters

Platform Notice: Cloud - This article applies to Atlassian products on the cloud platform.

Summary

You are trying to add or use a custom field on any screen, and see the error message: 

"Description can't exceed 255 characters"

Edit field description to fewer than 255 characters

Jira has a hard character limit for custom field descriptions. This limit cannot be adjusted in Jira Cloud.

If you're seeing this error, you will need to edit the field's description to a value smaller than 255 characters.

  1. Navigate to gear Settings > Issues > Custom fields
    1. Or, visit the link https://<your_instance_here>.atlassian.net/secure/admin/ViewCustomFields.jspa
  2. Search for the custom field by name
  3. Select ... (more options) > Edit details
  4. Adjust the field's description
  5. Save changes

Alternative: Use a different field type

If necessary, you can use a multi-line Text field, which supports ~32000 characters.



Last modified on Feb 13, 2025

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