Project Import failure due to required plugin custom field in Jira Server or Data Center
Platform Notice: Server, Data Center, and Cloud By Request - This article was written for the Atlassian server and data center platforms but may also be useful for Atlassian Cloud customers. If completing instructions in this article would help you, please contact Atlassian Support and mention it.
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
Symptoms
When trying to project import, you hit an on-screen error that looks like the following despite having the same version of Jira and apps indicated.
The backup project 'JIRA' requires custom field named 'Date of First Response' with full key 'com.atlassian.jira.ext.charting:firstresponsedate'. In the current instance of JIRA the plugin is at version '1.5', but this custom field was not installed in the backup data. You may want to create an XML backup with this version of the plugin installed.
The backup project 'JIRA' requires custom field named 'Time in Status' with full key 'com.atlassian.jira.ext.charting:timeinstatus'. In the current instance of JIRA the plugin is at version '1.5', but this custom field was not installed in the backup data. You may want to create an XML backup with this version of the plugin installed.Diagnosis
This usually happens because of inconsistencies in custom fields that apps might or might not have created in your environments. The original issue was logged and fixed as part of JRA-28480 - Getting issue details... STATUS . However, there might be other situations that lead to this issue.
Resolution
Before going through this resolution, please ensure all requirements listed in our Restoring a Project from Backup documentation have been met.
We will load different sets of data into a separate Jira instance to minimize custom field issues arising from usage differences.
Legend
PRD = Production data backup
SRC = Source data backup
STG = Staging data backup
Pre-requisites
- Have a copy of your
<JIRA-home>/plugin/installed-pluginsfolder from Production ready (plugins zip). - Have a backup of your production data ready (PRD).
- Have a backup of your source data (SRC).
Resolution Steps
- Install Jira on a separate staging instance and unpack the plugins zip from your production server into the same location. We are trying to emulate your production instance.
- Import the XML backup from (SRC) to your staging instance.
- Make an XML backup of your staging instance (STG).
- Shut down your staging Jira instance.
- Using the Connecting Jira to a Database documentation, create a new database for your staging environment and point to it.
- Restart your staging Jira instance. This will rebuild the database structure using the new database.
- Restore XML on the Jira staging instance startup using the (PRD) backup.
- Import the project from the (STG) backup.
- After the (PRD) to staging import is successful, generate another backup (final).
- Back up your Production instance.
- Import the (final) backup into Production.
Alternative Resolution
In some cases, after installing the required apps in the same version on both the source and the target instances, a restart is required. Then, produce the backup and try the import again. If this does not fix the problem, please see the following.
- Get the ID of the problematic custom field in your target Jira instance (Custom Field > Configure); the ID of that custom field will shown at the end of the URL.
- Edit the
entities.xmlof the backup, search and replace the ID of that custom field with the ID retrieved from step 1. - Save the
entities.xmlafter all the changes on the remaining custom field ID, if there are any. - Perform the project import again using the edited.
entities.xml.
Thanks to one of our fabulous customers who provided the above workaround.