How to delete a label in Jira

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Summary

Labels can't be simply deleted from Jira via UI and/or database. This article shows how to workaround this behavior to completely remove labels from Jira applications.

Environment

Jira applications - Cloud/Data Center

Solution

  1. To completely delete a label from a JIRA instance, the label must be first removed from all the issues in that instance.
  2. Once the label is removed from all issues, it will no longer be seen when browsing it.
    • However, the deleted label might still show up on the browser immediately after deleting the label from all issues. If that's the case, it might be caused by index/cache replication that eventually will become consistent or the browser cache would need to be flushed and reloaded.

Please note that, if you don't have permission across all issues on Jira, you might miss some issues containing the label, which will impact the label not being removed. It's recommended that a user with administrative privileges (Managing global permissions - Jira DC | Manage global permissions - Jira Cloud) perform this action as this user will have complete visibility of Jira issues.

Feature Request

Both Cloud and Data Center application users can watch the following feature requests for improved label management in Jira applications:

  • Feature Request for Jira Data Center: JRASERVER-33672 - Getting issue details... STATUS
  • Feature Request for Jira Cloud: JRACLOUD-33672 - Getting issue details... STATUS
Last modified on Mar 21, 2024

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