Documentation for JIRA 5.1.x. Documentation for other versions of JIRA is available too.

'Cloning' (copying) an issue allows you to quickly create a duplicate of an issue within the same project. The clone issue is a replica of the original issue, containing the same information stored in the original issue — e.g. Summary, Affects Versions, Components, etc. The clone issue can also be linked to the original issue using a 'clone' link.

A clone issue is a separate entity from the original issue. Operations on the original issue have no effect on the clone issue and vice versa. The only connection is a link (if created) between the original and the clone issue.

On this page:

A clone issue retains the following information:

  • Summary — with optional prefix that can be customised by your JIRA system administrator. (See Configuring Issue Cloning for details.)
  • Description
  • Assignee
  • Environment
  • Priority
  • Issue Type
  • Security
  • Reporter (Note that if you do not have the 'Modify Reporter' permission, the clone issue will be created with you as the Reporter.)
  • Components
  • Affects Versions
  • Fix For Versions
  • Issue Links (optional)
  • Attachments (optional)
  • Project (Note that once the clone has been saved, you can move it to another project as described in Moving an Issue.)

Details such as time tracking and comments are not cloned.

Creating a Clone Issue

To clone an issue,

  1. Open the JIRA issue which you wish to clone.
  2. From the 'More Actions' menu, select 'Clone'. The 'Clone Issue' screen will appear.
    • You can edit the clone issue's Summary if you wish.
    • If the issue contains links to other issue(s), you can select whether or not to include the links in the new clone issue.
    • If the issue contains sub-tasks, you can select whether or not to create the sub-tasks in the new clone issue.
    • If the issue contains attachments, you can select whether or not to include the attachments in the new clone issue.
  3. Click the 'Create' button.

Cloned Issue Linking Behaviour

By default, when an issue is cloned, JIRA will automatically create a link between the original and cloned issue using the pre-existing link type name 'Cloners'.

Your JIRA system administrator can customise this default behaviour by either preventing links from being created or changing the name of the link type. See Configuring Issue Cloning for details.

Cloned Issue Summary Field Prefix

By default, the 'Summary' field of a cloned issue is prefixed with the string 'CLONE - ' to indicate that the issue is a clone.

Your JIRA system administrator can customise this default behaviour by either changing the prefix string or preventing the addition of prefixes on cloned issues. See Configuring Issue Cloning for details.

Cloning and Sub-Tasks

Sub-Tasks can be cloned in the same manner as other issue types.

If the original issue has associated sub-tasks, that issue's sub-tasks will also be cloned. The summary of a cloned sub-task will also include the prefix specified in the properties file.



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