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Azure DevOps Services | Azure DevOps Server | Azure DevOps Server 2022 | Azure DevOps Server 2020
This article describes how to create copies of Azure Boards work items or their details, and how to copy and add lists of work items to emails or other apps.
- To duplicate a single work item, use Create copy of work item.
- To copy a list of work items, multiselect the work items and select Copy as HTML. You can then paste the list into Excel, other apps, or email.
- To email a list of work items to project members, you can multiselect the work items and select Email.
In Azure DevOps Server, you can also clone an exact copy of an existing work item, including all fields and attachments, but with a new ID. Depending on the options you choose, you use Create copy of work item to create either a copy or a clone.
You copy a work item to adjust prepopulated values, and clone a work item to create an exact duplicate. Cloning is useful when no field modifications are needed.
Note
Some fields might get copied depending on your on-premises version and customizations. If the work item type you clone lacks a state transition rule to clear the Closed By field when the State is New or Active, that field gets copied. Current system out-of-box work item templates include this rule.
Important
The option to clone a work item isn't available in Azure DevOps Services. You can use copy options instead.
Prerequisites
| Category | Requirements |
|---|---|
| Permissions | - To view, follow, and edit work items: View work items in this node and Edit work items in this node permissions set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has these permissions. For more information, see Set work tracking permissions. - To add tags to work items: Project-level Create new tag definition permission set to Allow. By default, the Contributors group has this permission. |
| Access levels | - Project member. - To add new tags to work items or to view or follow pull requests: At least Basic access. - To view or follow work items: At least Stakeholder access. For more information, see About access levels. - All project members, including members in the Readers group, can send emails containing work items. |
Note
- Provide Stakeholder access to members who want to contribute to the discussion and review progress. These members typically don't contribute to code, but want to view work items, backlogs, boards, and dashboards.
- By default, all Contributors and Stakeholders in public projects can add new and existing tags. In private projects, Stakeholders can only add existing tags. To control the ability to create new tags, set the Create tag definition permission at the project level. For more information, see Change project-level permissions.
Note
- Provide Stakeholder access to members who want to contribute to the discussion and review progress. These are typically members who don't contribute to code, but want to view work items, backlogs, boards, and dashboards.
Create a copy of a work item
Copy a work item to create a new work item with a new ID and prepopulated fields from the original. You can modify the fields as needed.
Related links to the original work item and any parents, and a discussion comment, are automatically created in the copy. You can copy other links and attachments depending on the options you select. History isn't copied over.
To copy a work item:
Open the work item you want to copy in the web portal, select the More actions icon at upper right, and then select Create copy of work item.
On the Copy Work Item screen, choose a different project and work item type for the new work item if desired, select any of the copy options, and then select Copy.
In the new work item, change the Title, update other fields and add details as needed, and then select Save or Save and Close.
Copy options
Optionally, you can select any or all of the following options in the Copy Work Item form:
Include existing links includes all Related and external links from the copied work item. A Related link to the original work item and a comment in the Discussion section are always created, whether you select this item or not.
Include existing attachments includes attachments from the original work item in the new work item.
Include child work items includes existing links to child work items in the copied work item. This feature isn't recursive. Only direct child links of the original work item are included. This option appears even if there are no child items in the original work item.
Note
- If you copy a work item and choose to Include child work items, a copy of each child work item is created and linked to the copied work item through a parent-child link.
- If you copy the work item to a different project or work item type, Include child work items is disabled.
Note
For Azure DevOps Server, Include child work items requires installing the Azure DevOps Server 2020.1 update.
Copy the work item URL or information
To copy a work item URL, you can:
Copy the URL from the web browser address bar.
Right-click the link at upper left in the work item and select Copy link address from the context menu.
Select the work item's More actions icon and then select Copy link from the context menu.
To copy the work item type, ID, and title, hover over or select the title in the open work item and then select the Copy icon next to the title bar.
Copy or email a list of work items
You can copy an HTML formatted table of selected items from a backlog page or query results list, and paste the list into a Word document, Excel spreadsheet, or other application. You can also email the list of selected items directly to team or project members using your default email client.
In Azure Boards, open a backlog or query results page and multiselect the work items you want to copy by using Shift+Select or Ctrl+Select.
Select the More actions icon next to one of the selected work items, and then select either Copy as HTML or Email.
Copy as HTML
Selecting Copy as HTML produces an HTML-formatted table that contains links and details for your selected work items. You can paste the table into an Excel spreadsheet, Word doc, or other application.
You can email the work item list using your chosen email client and recipients. To open linked work items, viewers need read access to the project or area node for those work items.
Send email to project or team members
Selecting Email opens a Send work items in email screen that includes the HTML-formatted table of work item links. To send email, select team or project members in the To field, complete the Subject and optional Note fields, and then select Send.
The email sends through your default mail client, and includes a link to a query that returns only the selected work items.
Note
Send work items in email is a built-in Azure Boards function that behaves as if a default subscription with Skip initiator enabled triggers the email. Therefore, you don't receive emails you send to yourself using this feature. To send a list of work items to yourself, paste the HTML-formatted list into an email and send that to yourself manually.
Change work item types
To change a large number of work item types, select Change type from the context menu for the multiselected list. For more information, see Change work item type.
If the Change type option isn't available, you can export a set of work items to Excel or CSV, copy them to a new list, and reimport them specifying a different work item type. For more information, see Bulk add or modify work items with Excel or Import or update work items in bulk by using CSV files.