Restoring Your Data to a New Jira Instance: Step-by-Step Guide

This document outlines the steps for restoring to another Jira instance. This action requires a few steps before triggering a restore from the Rewind App. 

Link the original Jira instance (source)

This is your source Jira instance, the instance from which we will be restoring objects. This Jira instance needs to be populated and linked with the Rewind App as a 'backup' instance.

1. Logged in your instance, go to Apps → Manage your Apps → Search for 'Rewind'

   

2. Install the App by clicking in ‘Try it free’ and then ‘Start free trial’

3. You should get a notification from Jira with this message, and go ahead and click in ‘Manage app’:

4. Expand the Rewind app and you will be able to see this following screen, and by clicking in 'Get Started' you will be redirected to the Rewind App to complete the linking:

 

5. Rewind App will be prompted in the next screen. If you already have an account, go ahead and log in. If you don’t, you can create an account on the spot and will be redirected to the next step to select which type of account you want to link. For this step, chose “I want to backup this account”.

For source Jira accounts, the type of account has to be ‘backup’

6. After this step, another screen should be displayed to chose your data residency, and then you will be redirected to the Rewind Vault, where the backups for this account will begin. The Restore to another instance feature will only be available after the first backup is completed.

Link the target Jira Instance (the instance to restore to)

This instance will be created exclusively to restore data from the source instance (previously linked). Currently backups are disabled for the target instance. In order for the restore to be successful, the target instance should be mostly empty. If you have existing Workflow statuses, Issue link types, Issue types, Project Roles, or Workflows the same names as the source instance then during restore, those items will be skipped. Items in the target instance will NOT be deleted or updated during restore.

When you create a new Jira instance following Atlassian normal steps, a project is created automatically, along with issue types and some other configurations. We recommend you to delete the default project and remove it from the trash as well.

7. Create a new Jira instance: this step can be done in several ways, through your own (source) Jira instance, or by an external link. If you are already logged in to your Atlassian account, go ahead an access this link to create a new Jira instance (as a bundle with your existent one): Sign up - Try Atlassian Cloud | Atlassian

8. A new screen will be prompted to select the type of project you want to create with the new Jira instance. You can select any project template here and click Next.

 

9. You will be redirected to the new Jira instance. Based on which project template you selected, this layout could be different for you. Go to Projects → View all projects

 

10. Delete the default project created by Jira. Project name could be different based on which project template you selected.
    
     
11. The next step is to link this new target instance with Rewind App. Follow the steps 1-4 to link the new instance: Go to Apps, search for Rewind, and install the app. Once you click on ‘Get Started’ and is redirected to the Rewind App, choose the option “I want to copy data into this account”

12. Once you submit it, you will be redirected to the Vault with no items, since backups are disabled for Copy instances. After this step is completed and the first backup for the source instance is completed, then you will be able to trigger the restore to a new instance.

Before restoring data to another Jira instance

• Make sure that you have added all the users in the new target instance and their permissions are the same as those in the source instance.
• If you have created any custom issue types in the source instance at hierarchy level 1 or above, then you will need to create them manually in the target instance.
  • Make sure that issue sub-tasks are enabled on the target instance

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• Do NOT delete any issue types that were created automatically when you created a new Jira instance.
• Make sure the destination instance has the required licenses and other related Jira settings enabled for all the various types of projects you are restoring.
• You may want to turn off emails on the target instance as creating issues and comments is likely to trigger emails which may be disruptive. To do so, go to the Jira System settings and under Outgoing Mail, click the Disable Outgoing Mail button.

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  • Note: This only removes emails, users will still get In-App notifications and those can only be turned off through user settings. To disable these notifications each user would have to go to their profile into the notification settings and remove the In-App notifications

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Restore to a new instance:

In order to restore to another instance, the action needs to be triggered by the source instance. On a new tab, open Rewind App and select the source instance in your dropdown and then click on Advance Restore:

 

In the Advance Restore page, there is a new section named ‘Restore Target’. Select ‘Other Instance’ and choose from the dropdown, the target instance that you linked. Only those instances which are setup as a Copy instance will be displayed in this dropdown. Then select the Date and Time and click on ‘Copy Items’.

 

 

A popup should be displayed to confirm your selection. By clicking on ‘Yes, copy’, the copy from the source instance to the target will start and you should be able to see the resources being populated in your target instance. It is recommended to wait until the restore has been successfully completed (you will receive an email) before modifying anything on the target instance.

How to delete a default project

1. If one (or more) projects were created, delete the project by clicking on Projects (top menu) → All Projects. The following screen should list all the projects you have in your instance. Under ‘More Actions’ on the right side of each project, click on ‘Move to trash’.

 

2. A modal should be displayed to confirm your action. After confirming it, this notification should appear on the left bottom of the screen:

 

3. Click on ‘Go to trash’ to delete permanently the project from the trash. This is an important step since projects in trash are still linked to the instance. For each project in Trash, click on the menu on the right and click on ‘Delete permanently’. Jira will display a modal to confirm your action and then a notification (bottom left) displaying they are deleting the project. This action is not immediate, and it might take a few minutes to delete the project.