How can I change default assignee user?

[Dzianis Azarenka]

I'm creating an issue. You will see "automatic" if you look at аssignee field. I want to change automatic user from Jack to John. How can I do?

[Thomas Schlegel · Accepted solution]

Hi Dzianis,

the default assignee is either the project lead or it is "Unassigned".

If you have defined Components for your project, you can specify a "Component Lead" and make him the default assignee for all issues regarding this component.

Have a look here: https://confluence.atlassian.com/display/JIRA/Defining+a+Project

Best regards

Thomas

[Florian Leray]

default assignee can be anyone now : add a post-function "Assign to..." on the "Create" transition through the workflow diagram view, all your issues can be assigned to whoever you like, reporter, lead, project role...

[Richard Hanby]

It's not obvious but as Florian says, Add a Post-function to the transition.

There are some set assignees you can use, or use a custom user by selecting the "Update Issue Field" option

Select Issue Field: "Assignee"

Select the user you wish to assign issue to on creation.

[Roman Chernysh]

Is it possible to add a component lead to a bulk change assignment?

[TelePro SysAdmin]

I'm seconding Florian/Richard's solution instead.  You can make it a post-function in the workflow.

!!! NOTE !!!!:   Post-Functions in the CREATE transition have a limitation:  You need to put the Assign to... or Update Issue Field post-transition step in the right order of post-transitions.  See here:

https://confluence.atlassian.com/jirakb/post-function-on-create-issue-transition-appears-to-not-work-718836210.html

[Rasmus Vedel]

I have the post-function for Create, but can I assign to Current User if - and only if - the newly created issue is unassigned?

Without that ability I can't assign a new issue to a colleague without having it re-assigned to me... 

[Ronald Vallenduuk]

Is this likely to change any time soon? I find this quite limiting.

I'm project lead but I'd like my QA lead to triage new tickets. That means I have to set the QA lead as Component lead for all components. And if the QA lead changes I have 27 components to update...

[Allan Stokes]

I'm back to JIRA for the first time since 2009. An hour into setting up an IT project where 90% of the work will be done by a consultant, but for which I'm the lead because he simply doesn't know our environment, and already kaboom! it's my first head-smash-into-glass-desk moment.

[MichaelR]

Also I think there should be a Default Assignee option of 'Reporter'

[Brian Begy]

Why is this so broken? Unassigned is not a valid state for an issue. Why is this so broken?

[gillamc]

5.5 years later and this still hasn't been fixed????? What is the reasoning behind not allowing the default assignee in a project to be anyone I want it to be? I use the same workflow for multiple projects, so adding a transition step to set an assignee is a hack that doesn't work (since I'd then have to have separate copies of the workflow for each project where the assignee is different from another project). Instead of forcing me into hacks that don't work why not just fix this????

[Adrien Terrenoire]

Chris, see the javascript submitted by Ihor.   

Navigate to the project's field configuration and pasting the script into the description of the field.  

[gillamc]

I guess I'm missing something--how does that javascript help solve the issue? It looks like it just clicks the "assign to me" link/button. That's not helpful and doesn't solve the issue. If I have a project where the "customer" can create issues, but not have issues assigned to them, and I want a default assignee other than the project owner/manager (say I want to push all new tickets to a triage developer) then I fail to see how this helps in any way. New tickets would either still have to be assigned to the project owner or go into a state of unassigned and be automatically assigned to whomever views them first (which is not helpful).

Are you saying that there is a way to use javascript at ticket creation time to assign the ticket to a specific named user? And how would this help for tickets that are created from emails?

It still seems, to me, like a deficiency that has persisted for 5.5 years that could be easily fixed and would create a lot of flexibility for customers.

[Adrien Terrenoire]

Sorry mate,  I didn't fully internalize your requirement.   You are 100% correct.

[gillamc]

I was hoping I was missing something...frustrating as it seems such a simple thing for them to fix. However, that's nice you can add javascript to the field description! I didn't know that. That can be handy for some other things.

Thanks.

[mjenkins65]

This is very frustrating. As stated elsewhere, there is a person on my project who is responsible to triage issues. Why can't all new issues be auto assigned to this person? Or even allow me to define a roll called "Default Assignee" and then just put one person in the role.....

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Make them project lead (you don't have to give project lead any admin), then tell it to assign to project lead.

Or make them a component lead on all components and make component mandatory so the user must fill in at least one.

As mentioned above, whack in a post-function on issue-create that assigns it to that person.

Personally, I agree, there should be another option, maybe "project nominee" handled the same way as "project lead" (but clearly separate). 

I'd also want to add functionality to catch either project lead or nominee being deleted or made inactive - the instant that happens, I'd want to flip both to someone who can take responsibility for the project and triage, although the exact rules there could be complicated (Last active Jira admin?  Last person on the project with assign rights to update any issue in it? etc)

[Alex Samad YB]

6.5 years .. sigh - i guess they have made their money...

[Sekhar Prakash]

I saw that you could change the default assignee based on the request type - not at the project administration level. Hope that helps as we end 2019! But then seriously navigating through the maze of Jira settings combined with version wise movement of settings between pages requires some skill...

[Michael Ries]

7.5 years

~ just your yearly reminder ~

[Ronald Vallenduuk]

Not quite up there with hiding time from certain roles and/or groups (I think that one is heading for 17.5 years now) but certainly a good example of Atlassian not giving a toss about what experienced users want. All they seem to do is fiddle around with cosmetic stuff.

[Rilwan Ahmed]

Atlassian should allow to change "Default Assigne" to any user.

[Philip Culver]

It's pretty crazy that this is still an issue at all. Why is Atlassian digging their heels in on this? The question was asked literally 3.5 years ago. Allowing the default assignment to be any user should not be a difficult change. I'd love to hear from them why they aren't willing to make that change. 

[Daniel Kennedy]

I love the arrogance here from people who represent Atlassian on these forums.  "Edge cases" my arse.

I have seen this with quite a few features that are missing in Jira and should be core.

Standard responses:

1. There is a plugin that does this (usually not very well)
2. It is an edge case (although lots of people seem to have them)
3. Here is some Jira Query code that can do it
4. Here is a workaround
5. It is not a bug

It smacks of the Microsoft way and gives me a very bad vibe about the software ongoing.  As a customer it is making me wary of integrating our processes too much further with Jira.

[Amir Katz (Outseer)]

@Daniel Kennedy I share your pain...regarding point #1, even if the add-on does the job right, it usually costs $$$, which may be sometimes 25% of what you are paying for the core Jira.

BTW, Nick Brough, who called this an "edge case", is not from Atlassian, but from Adaptavist, who make the excellent ScriptRunner add-on.

But when I look at all different functionalities that ScriptRunner provides, many of them should have been core features (e.g. load options to a selection field from a text file instead of typing them manually, one by one, in the UI).

Just my $0.02 

[Joydip Chakravarty]

Interesting... so by defining these requests as "edge cases", he's advocating that they don't get added to Jira, so his company can continue to provide value filling in the gaps (that, in some cases, Jira shouldn't have).

That being said, I do appreciate Adaptavist providing an option that Jira is not. And also for @Nic Brough -Adaptavist- being on the forum and providing help and guidance to other members.

[Joseph Chittenden-Veal]

You can add a post function to the create issue transition that will set the assignee to the reporter, the current user or the project/component lead developer.

When editing the workflow select the Diagram view, select the create issue transition. A box will pop-up with a 'Post Functions' link. Go here and the rest is straight forward.

Still not quite as flexible as I'd like but maybe it helps!

[larrylebron]

If I understand correctly, this still requires a transition in states for it to take effect, correct? We'd like to see the functionality which would make "Reporter" the default at the time of issue creation.

[Anna Baumgard]

"Create" is a transition between "Create" and "Open".

[Hyme Schachter]

I would very much like to see the capability to set the Default Assignee to Reporter

[Walter Nissen]

Ditto on wanting to change the default assignee. The larger a project is, the less likely the lead will be doing triage, and the more painful to change the default setting on every component.

[Ihor Tretyakov]

JIRA 7.5

Go to Administration/Issues/Field configurations/Configure

On Assignee field click Edit

Put this code in Description

<script type="text/javascript">
 AJS.$(document).ready(function() {
 if (AJS.$("#assignee").val() == "-1"){AJS.$("#assign-to-me-trigger").click();};
 });
</script>

[Adrien Terrenoire]

Thanks Ihor. This is exactly what I needed (and I learned that js can be used in the field descriptions)!

[Val Perry]

I'm new to Jira, and not sure how to find Issues Configuration. Could you please list the steps how to navigate to the field where to add that script, using new Jira GUI?

[Amir Katz (Outseer)]

It's a nice hack, but IMO, putting executable code in a text field is really a bad idea, reminds me of SQL injection :-(.

[Kevin Roderick]

this is really still an issue?

I own projects A, B, and C, but I have different developers assigned to work tickets for those projects.  Why can't I be the project lead, but have the default assignee be those 3 different developers?

[Florian Leray]

You can. Just create a post action on the "Create" transition in the workflow and that's it.

[Florian Leray]

Though you cannot really assign an issue to 3 people at a time in JIRA...

[Kevin Roderick]

i'm not trying to assign an issue to 3 people.

• projectA, lead: me, default assignee: developer1
• projectB, lead: me, default assignee: developer2
• projectC, lead: me, default assignee: developer3

i'm the lead on all 3 projects, but each has a different developer who should get assigned any tickets that come in.

a tickets should never be unassigned, so they're all getting assigned to me and the workflow is for me to then turn around and assign it to developerX depending on the project.  it's a waste of time.

[Ron Waldon]

See YOUR PROJECT -> Administration -> Roles -> Default Assignee.

You can only set it to the Project Lead (or unassigned). This is so that issues without a Component can be assigned to the Project Lead by default.

[Dávid Balakirev]

This is works with JIRA v6.1.4.

[YotamML]

This bug / "feature" / behavior is embarrassing.

6 years in the making and no traction on this trivial - and obviously required by the (paying) community - issue?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

This is an old thread, and also unclear from what looks like edits and removals.

Rather than try to dig stuff up, could you explain what you think the "bug" is here?

[YotamML]

Hi Nic,

The fact that the thread is old is probably a badge of shame. That's the relevant web search hit that I picked up when trying to find a solution for the issue - and it's spot on.

We also have this scenario in which we want default assigning of a project issues to one person but have another person that is the lead (with all of the privileges). The comments before my own provide the reasoning on why the proposed workarounds are difficult and not always applicable.

In some organizations (mine included), you have some autonomy in your own JIRA projects but you can't change the issue workflows etc.

I'm repeating comments from above - but again - it's amazing that this trivial issue is still open 6 years in. Does not reflect well on JIRA.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Mmm.  What "bug"?  I suspect this is old because there is no real bug here, just a handful of people with edge-case requirements around trying to automate stuff because their processes don't make the usage simple enough for their users.

[Walter Nissen]

Hi Nic,

The current setup makes it difficult to have a person who triages issues. The option to have the project owner be the triager is helpful, but if you want to have a QA lead or similar person take on that task, they need to be made the default assignee for all components, or one of the Javascript workarounds needs to be applied. I am surprised it is still being discussed years later, as it seems simple to me.

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Set them as the project lead.  If you're doing triage through a single person, then you don't need the component stuff at all, or any javascript.  As they're the one assigning the work, they're the project lead (and you can just mention the project owner in the project description, if that's a different person)

[Sarah Bailey]

"Edge-case"? Wow. Just...wow.

[Joydip Chakravarty]

I agree with Sarah. If the number of separate people commenting on this and similar threads is any indication, MANY users (myself included) are in the same boat.

[Przemysław Fedków]

"Edge-case" C'MON MAN

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

I used the wrong phrase in the wrong place there. 

My point was that you can already get the behaviour being asked for.  That people don't quite get that, or it's not obvious, those are not edge-cases. 

[John Prause]

You can assign anyone as the Default Assignee for a Component in Bugzilla 

but Jira,...No? Why?

So much for giving the customer what they want/need.

[Yves Jaques]

Agreed, Ronald's situation mirrors my own.

[Nicolas Le Corno]

Hello

@Atlassian @[deleted] @Product Team...

Have the same problem here.

Any update please on this request???
Jun 03, 2012 request's: wow 6 years

Thank you

[Tos Crawford]

The solution, allowing any user to be assigned as default, must not override if the creator assigned an assignee. 

Wouldn't be such a bad idea to allow different default users by issue type either.

[Jolmes Pastora]

An answer for 2019:

Go to your Service Desk Project Settings, under Request Types, under each request type you'll see the Edit Fields option, click on that > click on the Request Form tab option. The Assignee is a hidden field at the bottom.

[David Allyn]

What roles do your people have that you can put them as a default assignee??

[Zubin Thomas]

This issue is not yet fixed. When I move an issue from "To do" to "In Progress", the assignee gets changes to the person who is moving the issue.

How to fix this?

[Nic Brough -Adaptavist-]

Remove the post functions, automation or listener that is doing it.