Jira to ClickUp Migration: What Transfers, What Breaks

What ClickUp's Jira importer transfers and what it drops, the hierarchy decision you make once, and the agile setup you rebuild after the import.

L5 Team

December 1, 2023 8 min read Jira to ClickUp Onboarding Success in Engineering

ClickUp's Jira importer moves projects, issues, subtasks, comments, attachments, dependencies and statuses across, and it lets you map Jira statuses, custom fields and users during the import. It does not move recurring tasks, the Priority field, links between tasks, or any custom field you defined yourself, and it turns private Jira comments into public ClickUp comments. This guide covers what transfers, what breaks, the one hierarchy decision you make before the import runs, and the agile setup you rebuild afterwards.

Import from Jira: what the importer transfers

How Jira objects map into ClickUp during an import, with private comments arriving as public comments — Private Jira comments arrive as public ClickUp comments. Audit them before you open the workspace up.

Projects land in a ClickUp Space you choose during the import.
Issues, epics and stories become tasks and subtasks, structured by the hierarchy option you pick.
Task descriptions come across. Attachments embedded in a description arrive as task comments rather than inline.
Subtasks, assignees and followers. Jira followers and reporters both become ClickUp followers.
Dependencies and issue relationships transfer.
Comments with their authors and attachments.
Attachments with their authors, capped at 1GB per file.
Statuses, which you map to new or existing ClickUp statuses during the import.
The Jira ID, written into a new long-text custom field called Jira ID so you can still trace a ticket back.
Built-in Jira custom fields of type dropdown, label, text, number, date, URL and user.

What breaks, and what to do about it

Does not transfer	What it costs you	Handle it by
Recurring tasks	No record they existed once the import completes	Export a list of them from Jira before you start, then rebuild in ClickUp
The Priority field	Every task arrives without priority	Map priority into a built-in custom field before export, or bulk-set it after import using the Bulk Action Toolbar
Links between tasks	Cross-references in descriptions and comments become dead text	Accept it for closed work. For active work, add ClickUp relationships to the tasks that matter
Custom fields you defined yourself	Only Jira's built-in field types import. Bespoke fields are dropped	Recreate the fields in ClickUp first, then map the closest built-in Jira field to them
Timestamps	Activity history loses its clock	Nothing. Keep the Jira instance read-only for a quarter if audit history matters
Private comments	They arrive public, visible to anyone in the Space	Audit internal comments in Jira before export, or restrict the target Space until you have reviewed them
Time logged on issues	All logged time is reassigned to whoever runs the import	ClickUp's own recommendation: add a note on each issue in Jira recording who tracked the time
Label field behaviour	Built-in Label fields become ClickUp Tags, but Label custom fields become Label custom fields	Decide which you want, and normalise labels in Jira first

The time-tracking reassignment is the one that catches engineering teams. Every hour ever logged in Jira appears under one person's name in ClickUp. If that history feeds a billing or capacity report, deal with it before the import, not after.

The hierarchy decision you make once

Step seven of the importer asks how epics and stories should be arranged, and the answer determines your status model. It is the single most consequential choice in the whole process, because unwinding it means redoing the status mapping by hand.

The two hierarchy options in ClickUp's Jira importer: epics as tasks with stories as subtasks, or epics and stories as related tasks in separate Lists — Pick before you import. Changing it afterwards means redoing the status mapping by hand.

	Epics as tasks, stories as subtasks	Epics and stories as related tasks
Structure	One Epics List. Every epic is a task, every story a subtask. Anything that is neither goes to a Non-Epics List	One Folder holding an Epics List and a Stories List, linked by ClickUp relationships
Statuses	Epics and stories share one status set	Each level gets its own status set
Choose it when	Your epics and stories move through the same workflow, and you want the parent-child view	Epics are roadmap items with their own lifecycle and stories are sprint work

The importer also switches on the Nested Subtasks ClickApp automatically, so your subtask depth carries over.

Prerequisites and limits

Jira Cloud and on-premises are both supported. The current importer takes a Jira backup file, which is what makes server and Data Center instances workable. A legacy importer using the API is still available.
50GB upload limit on the backup file. Above that, ClickUp asks you to contact its professional services team.
Dates must be mm/dd/yyyy. The mm-dd-yyyy variant does not import.
Do not edit the backup zip beyond removing attachments. An altered file fails, and the entities.xml file has to stay at the top level.
30-day reimport window. Uploaded files stay available to reimport for 30 days, then they are permanently deleted. That window is your safety net for a second attempt.
Scanning a large file can take hours before the mapping steps even begin.

Run it in batches, not in one pass

ClickUp's own guidance for large Jira imports is to bring one or a few projects at a time. Three reasons it holds up in practice: a failed batch costs one project rather than the whole estate, mapping mistakes surface while they are still cheap to fix, and the team can start working in the first migrated project while the rest is still moving.

Before exporting, delete dead projects and strip large attachments from Jira, then re-add the attachments that matter after the import. That single step is usually the difference between a file that scans in twenty minutes and one that scans overnight. The wider sequence, which applies whatever tool you are leaving, is in our ClickUp migration guide.

The agile setup you rebuild afterwards

The importer moves work items. It does not move the way you run agile. Expect to rebuild:

Sprints. ClickUp Sprints are a ClickApp providing sprint Lists, sprint points and automatic carry-over of unfinished work. They are configured, not imported.
Story points and velocity. Sprint points live in the Sprints ClickApp, and velocity reporting comes from sprint widgets on a dashboard.
Burndown and burnup charts. Dashboard cards, built once per team.
Backlog grooming. A backlog List with a priority view, rather than Jira's dedicated backlog screen.
Automations and board rules. None of your Jira automation rules transfer. Rebuild the ones that were load-bearing and drop the rest.
Boards and swimlanes. Kanban views with grouping, configured per List.

An engineering team that made the move

A growing technology company came to L5 running agile delivery in Jira and finding the platform heavier than the team needed. L5 designed the target workspace first, then configured sprint, epic and initiative management, backlog and story grooming, Kanban boards, time estimates and tracking, and burndown reporting, and guided the Jira migration into that structure rather than into a blank workspace. The engineering team ended up with visible task progress and deadlines across the group and a planning cadence it kept, which is the outcome the importer alone does not produce.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I migrate from Jira to ClickUp?

Download a backup of your Jira data, then in ClickUp open your Workspace avatar, Settings, Imports / Exports, and select Jira. Choose Jira Cloud or Jira Software, upload the backup, then work through the wizard: pick projects, choose a hierarchy option, select a target Space, map users, map custom fields, and map statuses. Import in batches of one or a few projects rather than everything at once.

Does the Jira importer bring over sprints and story points?

No. The importer moves issues, subtasks, comments, attachments, dependencies and statuses. Sprint structure, story points, velocity and burndown reporting are rebuilt in ClickUp using the Sprints ClickApp and dashboard cards.

What does the Jira importer not transfer?

Recurring tasks, timestamps, the Priority field, links between tasks, and custom fields you defined yourself. Only Jira's built-in custom field types import. Private comments arrive as public comments, and time logged on issues is reassigned to whoever runs the import.

Can ClickUp replace Jira for an engineering team?

For small and mid-size product teams running light agile, usually yes: ClickUp has sprints, story points, burndown charts and Kanban boards. Large engineering organisations running formal Scrum with deep DevOps tooling will find Jira's release planning and developer integrations hard to replace. Our ClickUp vs Jira comparison works through that decision in detail.

How long does a Jira to ClickUp migration take?

Scanning and importing a large backup file can take several hours, and ClickUp notes the upload step alone can run that long for big instances. The migration as a project takes weeks, because the hierarchy design, the agile rebuild and the batch verification are the real work. Plan the design before you touch the importer.

Is Jira being phased out?

No. Atlassian continues to develop Jira, and it remains the default for large-scale software engineering. Teams leave it for fit reasons rather than availability ones: mixed teams that need docs, time tracking and multiple views in one place often find Jira heavier than their work requires.

Doing the design before the import

Every problem above is solvable, and almost none of them are solvable after the fact. L5 has onboarded more than 600 customers onto ClickUp in two years, and our ACT methodology compressed that onboarding from 55 days to 7 by settling the hierarchy, the status model and the agile configuration first, then running the import into a workspace that was already designed.

As a ClickUp Diamond and Preferred Partner, L5 designs and runs these migrations for engineering teams. Talk to us about scoping yours.