Sorting and ordering issue lists (FREE)

You can sort a list of issues several ways, including by:

• Blocking
• Created date
• Due date
• Label priority
• Last updated
• Milestone due date
• Popularity
• Priority
• Weight

The available sorting options can change based on the context of the list. For sorting by issue priority, see Label Priority.

In group and project issue lists, it is also possible to order issues manually, similar to issue boards.

Sorting by popularity

When you select sorting by Popularity, the issue order changes to sort descending by the number of upvotes (awarded "thumbs up" emoji) on each issue. You can use this to identify issues that are in high demand.

Manual sorting

Introduced in GitLab 12.2.

When you select Manual sorting, you can change the order by dragging and dropping the issues. The changed order persists, and everyone who visits the same list sees the updated issue order, with some exceptions.

Each issue is assigned a relative order value, representing its relative order with respect to the other issues on the list. When you drag-and-drop reorder an issue, its relative order value changes.

In addition, any time an issue appears in a manually sorted list, the updated relative order value is used for the ordering. So, if anyone drags issue A above issue B in your GitLab instance, this ordering is maintained whenever they appear together in any list.

This ordering also affects issue boards. Changing the order in an issue list changes the ordering in an issue board, and vice versa.

Sorting by blocking issues

Introduced in GitLab 13.7.

When you select to sort by Blocking, the issue list changes to sort descending by the number of issues each issue is blocking. You can use this to determine the critical path for your backlog.