I created a custom field called “Postponed Until” in my JIRA project. Since custom fields are not required by default, most of my existing tickets don’t have this field populated or even present.
I’m trying to write a JQL query that will show me all tickets where either the postponed date field is empty OR where the field doesn’t exist at all on the ticket. I can handle the empty value part, but I’m stuck on how to check if the field is completely missing from a ticket.
I’ve been through the JIRA documentation for advanced search but couldn’t find any operator that checks for field existence. Has anyone figured out how to do this kind of search?
yeah, i was confused by this too when i started using jql. jira treats missing fields and empty ones the same way. just use “postponed until” is empty and you’ll get everything you need. don’t overthink it like i did!
Hit this same issue when we added custom fields to our backlog. JIRA handles missing fields and empty ones the same way in JQL - you don’t need separate logic. “Postponed Until” IS EMPTY catches both tickets that never had the field AND ones where it’s blank. I wasted tons of time trying to tell them apart before realizing they work identically for searches. Just use “Postponed Until” IS EMPTY and you’ll get everything. Pro tip: “Postponed Until” IS NOT EMPTY shows only populated tickets - great for double-checking your search works.
JIRA treats missing fields and empty values the same way when you’re querying. Just use “Postponed Until” IS EMPTY - it’ll grab all tickets where the field was never set or exists but is blank. I hit this same issue when we added priority scoring fields halfway through a project. JIRA doesn’t care if a field “never existed” vs “exists but empty” - they’re the same thing in JQL. Want to double-check? Run “Postponed Until” IS NOT EMPTY and you’ll only see tickets where someone actually filled in the field. Works consistently across different JIRA versions.