# Site migration

Migrating between staging and production sites, or from Jira Server to Jira Data Center or Jira Cloud, or the other direction? No worries, JXL will be the same on the other side.

Keep in mind

To migrate sheet data you need to have Administer Jira Global permission.

# Migration paths

There are various migration paths supported by Atlassian (opens new window) from Jira Server to Data Center or Cloud, and for cloud-to-cloud moves there is Atlassian's Cloud migration feature (opens new window). Make sure to follow their recommended steps closely.

Whichever strategy and method you choose to migrate your data from the origin to the destination site, ensure that your Project and Issue data are transferred, or exported and re-imported, in their entirety, i.e. including so called Entity properties. That's it. Install the JXL app in the destination site and it will pick up your Sheets exactly where you left them.

If you are using the Jira Cloud Migration Assistant (opens new window) and its Can be migrated check has a grey Stage 1 tick mark ("unknown or low migration success rates"), or it just generally directs you to contact us, there's no need to be discouraged. It might be unknown to Atlassian but the JXL migration is likely the easiest part of your whole move.

If your Sheets are not in the destination site after your migration then the Entity properties were not migrated. Fear not, JXL has its own reliable, fast and convenient migration method.

JXL site migration v2.0.0

With the JXL site migration, you can easily export and import your Sheets in order to move them between Jira sites. Origin and destination sites can be any combination of Jira Cloud, Data Center and Server.

  1. Sign in to the origin site.

  2. In JXL for Jira Cloud, open the Settings menu in the navigation header bar and choose Apps. In JXL for Jira Data Center and Server, open the Administration menu in the navigation header bar and choose Manage apps.

  3. In the navigation sidebar in the JXL section, choose Site migration.

  4. On the Site migration page, in the Export tab, click the Export button. Depending on the number of Sheets in your site this can take a moment.

Export

  1. Once the sheet data is generated, click the Download file button and save it to your local storage.

  2. If the origin and destination sites are different, edit the exported file before you import it. The file contains JSON (opens new window)-formatted data and you can use any ordinary plain text editor, code editor or IDE to alter it. Ideally, use an application with a search-replace feature. You'll want to adjust any Project keys, Custom field IDs (How to find a Jira custom field ID (opens new window)) and JQL statements that include any such identifiers, so that they work as expected in the destination site. They almost certainly differ between origin and destination sites and JXL has no knowledge of that otherwise.

  3. Sign in to the destination site.

  4. If you haven't yet, install JXL in the destination site.

  5. In the destination site, navigate to the Import tab on the Site migration page.

Import

  1. Click the Choose file button, find the file you downloaded in step 5. and select it to upload.

  2. In the Advanced options section you can activate the Create sheets with newly generated IDs checkbox. This option changes the import behaviour so that new Sheets are created instead of overwriting potentially existing Sheets with the same ID.

  3. Click the Import button.

Imports overwrite existing sheet data

If you intend to merge Sheets into a site with existing Sheets, carefully review your data and consider activating the Create sheets with newly generated IDs option.

By default, any potentially existing Sheets with IDs that match IDs in the imported sheet data will be overwritten. Any potentially existing Sheets that don't match any IDs in the imported data will remain unchanged.

If you have any questions or anything isn't working as expected contact us (opens new window).

# Feature differences

There are no noteworthy differences in features and capabilities between JXL for Jira Cloud and JXL for Jira Data Center and Server at this point in time, except that the API is currently only available in JXL for Jira Cloud.

Updated: 3 Dec 2024