This page shows how to mark one issue as a duplicate of another in Google Issue Tracker. When you mark an issue as a duplicate, its status is changed to Duplicate and it is considered closed.
You must have Edit Issues permissions for the components that contain both issues in order to mark an issue as a duplicate of another.
Marking an issue as duplicate
When you mark an issue as duplicate, you indicate that the content of the issue is reported in another issue, called the canonical issue. The canonical issue may be chosen because it's older, has more visibility, or encompasses a larger scope when compared to the duplicate issue. You can mark an issue as duplicate either on that issue's page or in a search results page (using a bulk edit). However, you cannot mark an issue as duplicate from the canonical issue's page.
When you mark an issue as duplicate, it is considered closed and given a status of Duplicate. The Reporter, Assignee, Verifier, and any users or groups in the Collaborators and CC lists are added to the CC list of the canonical issue. Hotlists are also added to the canonical bug. The duplicate issue appears in the Duplicates tab of the canonical issue. Last, the duplicate issue's page gains a yellow bar near the top indicating the duplicate status. You can hold the pointer over the link in the yellow bar or in the status field to display a Hovercard for the canonical issue.
Tab in the Related Issues tray
Information for an issue marked as duplicate is found in the Duplicates tab in the Related Issues tray on the details page of the canonical issue.
The number of duplicate issues that a canonical issue has is displayed in parenthesis within the Duplicates tab's title. Clicking on the tab displays a list of issues that are marked as duplicate of the canonical issue. The duplicate issues table displays the following values:
- Title: Click the title to open the issue's page.
- ID: Click the ID of the duplicate issue to copy it to the clipboard.
- Created: The date and time the issue was created.
- Reporter: The user who reported the issue.
Mark an issue as a duplicate
To mark an issue as a duplicate of another:
Open the issue.
In the App Bar near the top of the page, click Mark as Duplicate.
In the text field that appears, you have two options. You can search for the canonical issue (the issue you want to remain active) by typing a search query. Alternatively, you can enter the issue id.
If you searched for the canonical issue, select it from the search results.
Click Close as duplicate.
The issue status will now indicate that the issue has been marked as a duplicate of another issue.
Unmarking an issue as duplicate
An issue can be unmarked as duplicate in several ways:
- Click the Unmark Duplicate button in the App Bar.
- Click, the Re-open link beneath the status field.
- Change the status of the issue.
Note that an issue cannot be unmarked as duplicate from the canonical issue page.
If you click Unmark Duplicate or Re-open, the status for the issue becomes either New (if there is no Assignee) or Open (if there is an Assignee).
Once unmarked, the issue no longer appears in the canonical issue's Duplicates tab. However, people that were automatically added to the CC for the canonical issue remain on that list unless explicitly removed.