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Revisiting completed iterations may be necessary for various reasons. For example, when holding a retrospective meeting or estimating your team’s past performance for sprint planning. Sometimes, we need to look for the previous sprint just because it was accidentally closed and has to be restored.
The good news is that the data isn’t lost. In this blog post, we will explore how to view previous sprints in Jira Cloud in four different ways: using filters, reports, JQL, and Jira’s new AI features.
TL;DR: How to Find Closed Sprints in Jira
Once you close a sprint, it disappears from the board, and the backlog shows only active and future sprints. You can view previous sprints in Jira in several ways:
- List view filter. Open the List view and filter it by the Sprint field to see the work items from one or several past sprints, with their statuses and other details.
- Sprint reports. Open the Reports tab of your Scrum board and pick a closed sprint in the Sprint Report, the Burnup Chart, or the Jira sprint burndown report. To compare several sprints, open the Velocity report, which shows your recent sprints side by side.
- JQL search. Run a query with the closedSprints() function to find work items from all past sprints at once, for example, for a quarterly review.
- Rovo Chat. If your site has Rovo enabled, ask Rovo Chat to list your past sprints. On request, it can add links to each sprint’s work items and reports.
Let’s go through these methods step-by-step.
Why Do Teams Review Past Sprints in Jira, and Which Method Fits?
The best answer to how to view previous sprints in Jira depends on why you need them. For example, scrum masters usually open the last sprint before a retrospective, while managers may need data from several sprints for a quarterly review.
Note
Retrospectives often rely on what team members remember about the sprint. In Hasso Plattner Institute research, 86% of popular activities for collecting retrospective input used only team members’ impressions. Reviewing the previous sprint in Jira adds valuable facts to this discussion, such as what was completed on time and what moved to the next sprint. This allows you to make better-informed decisions.
Where to find past sprint data for different purposes
| Your goal | Where to start |
|---|---|
| Prepare a sprint retrospective | Sprint Report, to see completed work and what rolled over |
| Answer a question about a past task | List view filtered by the Sprint field |
| Check velocity trends for sprint planning | Velocity report |
| Collect data for an audit or a quarterly review | JQL search with closedSprints(), exported to CSV |
| Get a quick overview without opening reports | Rovo Chat |
| Restore a sprint closed by mistake | Reopen sprint in the Sprint Report or Burndown Chart |
How to View Previous Sprint in Jira with Filters
This method is the most straightforward and useful. By filtering work by the sprint field, you receive the most granular detail on the work items from your past sprints.
Here’s how to do this from the List view:
- Open your space’s board and select the List tab in the horizontal menu bar.
- Click Filter, switch to Basic, and click Add field. Then, find and select Sprint. Jira will show a list of sprints to pick from, including closed, active, and future ones. You can select one sprint or several. If the list is long, use the search box to find the sprint name.
- Select the sprint you want to view. After applying the filter, you will see the list of all work items in that sprint, along with their statuses and other details.
If you have a lot of work items in a sprint and wish to narrow down the results, add more filters for a refined view.
You can also filter work items by sprint from other locations. For example, from the Filters menu or the main search bar.
To do this, go to Filters in the left pane menu and select Search work items. Switch the filters to Basic, click More filters, and select Sprint. You will see a similar sprint menu. It suggests recent sprints, and Show full list opens the rest. Here, you can also select several sprints at once. Alternatively, click the main search bar at the top of the page and select View all work items.
Why We Recommend Using Filters to Review Previous Sprints
As mentioned earlier, applying filters is the most convenient way to view previous sprints in Jira. This approach lets you do more than see which work items belonged to a sprint. Once you’ve applied the Sprint filter, you can analyze your data further:
- Apply advanced search with JQL
- Search and group results
- Display them in different formats
- Configure columns
- Bulk-edit work items
- Save useful filters for quick access
In contrast, viewing your past sprints from Reports does not allow for data manipulation. It’s displayed in a list that lacks any interactivity. You can only open individual work items or jump to the work item search with the View in Issue Navigator link. However, Reports provide visualization of your past sprints, which can also be valuable for certain use cases.
How to View Previous Sprints in Jira with Reports
In your Jira space, open the scrum board and navigate to the Reports section. Jira now opens the Team overview dashboard with space insights first. To get to the sprint reports, click More reports. Then, select one of the reports in the Agile section. This can be:
- Burndown Chart
- Burnup Chart
- Sprint Report
- Velocity Chart
All these reports allow you to view information related to the previous sprints but organize it in slightly different ways.
Each report opens in a new browser tab. There, select one of the old sprints from the sprint dropdown in the upper-left corner.
You will see a chart visualizing the analytics for that sprint. Here, we show the Burndown Chart as an example, but this step is similar for the Burnup Chart and the Sprint Report as well:
The chart can offer valuable insights, but you need to scroll down to view a previous sprint in Jira from this report.
In the table below the chart, you will find a list of all work items (Jira issues) that were included in the selected sprint. From here, you can view scope changes and see what was completed and what rolled over to the next sprint. Here’s what it looks like in the sprint Burndown Chart:
Let’s compare this result to what the other reports contain.
Similar sprint data can be found in the Burnup Chart:
The Sprint Report also lists the work items (issues) from the selected past sprint, split into completed and not completed work. Here, you can see more details, such as work type, summary, priority, story points, and status. This is the sprint report Jira shows for each closed sprint:
The Burndown Chart and the Sprint Report show two strong signals of sprint health: work pace and the share of completed work. This information can be valuable for an Agile team. Knowing how your team performed in past sprints gives you a solid basis for planning the next ones.
Note
For example, in a study on evaluating sprints with machine learning, researchers turned burndown chart data from 551 past sprints into signals, such as days without progress and sudden increases in remaining work. With the help of an expert, they labeled each sprint as Poor, Fair, Good, or Excellent. The best model trained on these signals matched the expert labels with 88% accuracy.
The Velocity Chart (also called a Velocity report), works differently. Instead of a single sprint, it shows your recent sprints side by side, with committed and completed story points for each one. Below the chart, you’ll find a list of these sprints. Click a sprint name, and Jira will open its Sprint Report. This makes the Jira sprint velocity report a handy starting point when you want to check velocity trends or pick a past sprint to review.
You can select any of these reports, depending on what’s available in your Jira instance and based on the format that best suits your needs. Keep in mind that the Sprint Report is available only in company-managed spaces. Team-managed spaces show the same sprint details in their Sprint burndown chart, as described in the section below.
Also, keep in mind that Jira sprint reports reflect your current board settings and the full history of each work item. If someone changes the board columns or edits work items after the sprint closes, past reports change too. For example, a work item that wasn’t finished in an old sprint may appear as completed, or the other way around. If you need an exact record, export the sprint data right after you close the sprint.
When you ask how to view previous sprints in Jira, many resources suggest checking the Reports view as the first and most common solution. However, we strongly recommend trying out the List view first, as it offers more detailed information and greater flexibility.
Note
Past sprints are typically the starting point for sprint planning. Teams usually set their sprint capacity based on the estimated work they delivered in previous sprints. This works only if the estimates are reliable. Yet University of Melbourne research notes that lightweight estimation methods, such as Planning Poker, are prone to errors. One study from this review suggests comparing new user stories with past ones and analyzing earlier estimation mistakes. The Sprint Report and the Velocity Chart give you the data for this.
How to View Previous Sprints in Jira with Rovo AI
If your Jira site has Rovo enabled, you don’t need to remember how to view previous sprints in Jira step by step. Rovo is Atlassian’s AI assistant, and Rovo Chat lets you ask questions about your work in plain language. In Jira, Rovo Chat capabilities include searching work items with JQL and reading information about boards and backlogs. It respects your permissions, so it only shows the data you can access.
For example, I asked Rovo Chat to show the last 10 past sprints in one of our spaces. It returned a table with each sprint’s name, board, planned dates, and close date. On my request, Rovo Chat also added two links for each sprint:
- Work items, which opens a search for everything in that sprint
- Sprint report, which opens the board’s report for that sprint
Rovo Chat also pointed out useful details, such as sprints that stayed open after their end date. Since the answer depends on your access, sprints from boards you can’t open won’t get a report link. As with any AI answer, check the key facts in Jira before you share them.
Here are a few prompts you can try:
- Show me the list of the last 10 past sprints in this space.
- Which work items rolled over from [sprint name] to the current sprint?
- Summarize what was completed in [sprint name].
How to Find Work Items From All Closed Sprints with JQL
When you need the full picture across all past sprints, for example, for a quarterly review or an audit, a JQL query is the quickest answer to how to view previous sprints in Jira.
To do this, go to Filters > Search work items and switch to JQL to use advanced search. Then, enter a query like this one:
project = ABC AND sprint in closedSprints() ORDER BY Sprint DESC
The closedSprints() function returns work items from all completed sprints. You can narrow the results down, for example, by assignee or work type:
project = ABC AND sprint in closedSprints() AND assignee = currentUser()
To see which sprints each work item belonged to, add the Sprint column to the results. A work item that rolled over shows several sprints in this field. This column shows the current sprint first, or None if the work item isn’t in an open sprint. To see the completed sprints, hover over the counter next to it.
To find carry-over work that moved from a closed sprint to the current sprint, combine two functions. Keep in mind that these functions only work with the IN and NOT IN operators:
project = ABC AND sprint in closedSprints() AND sprint in openSprints()
In our team, we also use this approach to check the Definition of Done for past sprints. We keep the Definition of Done checklist in each story with Smart Checklist for Jira. It allows us to ensure work quality and minimize the need for rework and back-and-forth within the team. When all the checks are listed in a standardized checklist, it’s easy for the team to follow the predefined process step by step. Here’s what it looks like in a Jira work item:
## Definition of Done
- *Code complete.* All code has been written and reviewed, and all necessary functionality has been implemented.
- *Code coverage.* All code has been tested and meets the required code coverage threshold.
- *Code quality.* Code has been written using the required standards, conventions, and best practices.
- *Integration.* Code has been integrated into the main branch, and all integration issues have been resolved.
- *Security:* The software has been tested for security vulnerabilities, and all issues have been resolved.
- *Performance:* The software has been tested for performance and scalability, and all issues have been resolved.
- *Peer review.* The code is reviewed by the peers.
- *System testing.* The software has been tested end-to-end, and all system tests have passed.
- *Regression testing.* All previously implemented functionality has been tested, and regression tests have been passed.
- *Documentation.* All necessary documentation has been written, reviewed, and approved, including user manuals, API documentation, and system documentation.
- *Acceptance testing.* The functionality has been demonstrated to the product owner or customer and has been approved.
- *Deployment:* The software has been successfully deployed to the production environment, and all deployment issues have been resolved.
Since checklist progress is searchable with JQL, one query shows which work items from closed sprints still have unfinished checklist items:
sprint in closedSprints() AND “Smart Checklist Progress” ~ “-Done”
This query helps you find work items from closed sprints that still have unfinished Definition of Done items. These steps may need revisiting, although checklist progress can change after a sprint closes.
Keep in mind that Jira returns results at the work item level, so open each matching work item to see which checklist steps are still unfinished. For an overview across multiple work items, you can add a Smart Checklist Completion gadget to your Jira dashboard. Use a JQL filter to select the past sprints you want to review, and the gadget will show completion rates and checklist status distribution.
How to Reopen a Previous Sprint in Jira
If you closed a sprint by mistake, you can easily restore it. However, as you already know, you won’t find it on the Backlog or Active sprints tab. Instead, this can be done from the same Reports tab that we already used to view completed sprints.
- Go to the Reports tab of your space, click More reports, and select either the Burndown Chart or the Sprint Report.
- Select the sprint you need from the sprint dropdown in the upper-left corner.
- Once the chart for the selected sprint has loaded, click the More actions menu (•••) in the upper-right corner of the chart and choose Reopen sprint. Then, click Reopen to confirm.
The screenshot below uses the Burndown Chart as an example, but the steps and menus are the same for the Sprint report as well.
Please note that, depending on the project settings (space settings), you may need additional permissions to reopen sprints. If this functionality is not available, ask your Jira administrator for the Manage Sprints space permission. To learn how permissions work in Jira, see our guide to Jira roles and permissions.
Then, if you don’t have any current sprints running, you will be able to easily reopen the one you closed by mistake. Before reopening, Jira shows a confirmation dialog with the number of work items that will return to the sprint. These are all work items the sprint had when you closed it, including the unfinished ones that were moved to the backlog or to a future sprint.
The exception is if you already have an active sprint. In that case, things can become complicated. When trying to reopen the previous sprint, you will see an error message:
With the administrator permissions, enabling parallel sprints can be accomplished in just a few steps. However, in general, it may not be something necessary for your team’s workflow. If this is a new practice for the project, it could be confusing for other team members. Therefore, before adding a second concurrent sprint, ensure that you communicate this to the team members so they know what to work on.
Depending on exactly how you closed the sprint you want to reopen, there can be some unwanted outcomes. For example, if you opted to move all unfinished tasks to a new sprint and it’s already active, then those tasks will remain in their new sprint.
To conclude, the safest moment to reopen a previous sprint in Jira is right after you close it, before you start a new one. In this case, the reopened sprint gets back all the work items it had when you closed it. Still, Jira may change the status of some work items as they appear in the sprint report.
Now that you know how to view previous sprints in Jira, get more useful tips from our Jira tutorials:
- Implementing Agile in Jira
- Manage the Definition of Done in Jira
- How to Plan a Product Release
- How to Create and Manage Jira Sprints
- Jira Best Practices
- How to Automate Jira Processes
- Jira Service Management Automation
- How to Use Jira for HR
- How to Create and Manage Jira API Tokens
How to View Previous Sprints in Jira: Frequently Asked Questions
How to View Past Sprints in a Team-Managed Space
Team-managed spaces (next-gen projects) offer the Burnup report, the Sprint burndown chart, and the Velocity report. There’s no report called Sprint Report. Still, the Sprint burndown chart shows the same details for a closed sprint. Below the chart, you’ll find completed and incomplete work items, work items completed outside of the sprint, and a log of scope changes.
The steps on how to view previous sprints in Jira with the List view and JQL work here as well. If your team prefers the classic Sprint Report layout, try Atlassian’s Sprint Report workaround for team-managed spaces:
- Create a saved filter that returns the work items of your team-managed space.
- Create a Scrum board from this saved filter. Save the board in a company-managed space or in your profile.
- Open the new board and select Reports > Sprint report.
To reopen a sprint in a team-managed space, use the Burnup report or the Sprint burndown chart.
How to Export Sprint History from Jira
Jira sprint reports are made for viewing, not for exporting. When you need past sprint data outside Jira, for example, for an audit, export it from the work item search instead.
To do this, run a JQL query for the sprints you need. Then, open the More actions menu (•••) in the upper-right corner, select Export, and choose a CSV option. In a spreadsheet, you can group the rows by the Sprint column to compare several sprints. After that, you can share the summary with your team, for example, on a Confluence page.
If you need sprint data regularly, your developers can pull it through the Jira Software REST API. For example, the /rest/agile/1.0/board/{boardId}/sprint endpoint returns the sprints of a board, including closed ones.
Can I Reopen a Jira Sprint Closed by Mistake?
Yes, you can reopen it from the Burndown Chart or Sprint Report page. Please note that if another sprint is already active, Jira won’t let you reopen a closed one until parallel sprints are enabled. For the full steps, see Atlassian’s guide to reopening a sprint.
How to View Previous Sprint in Jira Without a Burndown Report?
Depending on your space type and settings, some reports may be unavailable. However, even if you don’t have a Burndown report, you should still be able to view previous sprints in Jira from the Burnup report, the List view, or with JQL. Team-managed spaces don’t have the Sprint Report, but their Sprint burndown chart lists the same sprint details.
What Happened to the All Work View in Jira?
Atlassian merged the All work and List views into one view called List in summer 2026. So if you’re wondering how to view previous sprints in Jira with just a few clicks and can’t find the All work tab above your board, open the List tab instead. The List view kept the main features of All work, such as basic and advanced filters, JQL, grouping, and saved views. Note that the work item search you open from the Filters menu is still called All work. It lets you filter work items across all spaces.
How to View Previous Sprints in Jira if I Don’t Have Admin Rights?
Normally, you don’t need administrator rights to view past sprints. However, you may require the Manage Sprints permission to reopen a closed sprint. If you can’t view previous sprints in Jira from the List view or the Burnup report, please contact your Jira instance administrator and check the project settings.
How to View Previous Sprint Stories in Jira?
Filter the List view by the sprint you need, then add the Work type filter and select Story. With JQL, a query such as sprint = “Sprint 12” AND type = Story gives the same result. The Sprint Report also lists the stories from a closed sprint, together with their story points.
How to See All Sprints in Jira?
To see the recent sprints, open the Velocity report. Each sprint name in its list opens the Sprint Report for that sprint. Another option is the Sprint filter in the List view – it shows closed, active, and future sprints. You can also ask Rovo Chat to list them for you.
How to Find a Sprint ID in Jira?
Open any sprint report and select the sprint in the sprint dropdown. The number after sprint= in the page URL is the sprint ID. Alternatively, filter the List view by a sprint and switch the filter to JQL. The query will show the ID, for example, Sprint = 2. You can use this ID in JQL queries and API requests.
How to Enable Parallel Sprints in Jira?
Parallel sprints let a team run several active sprints at the same time. You also need them to reopen a sprint while another one is active. To turn them on, select Settings, then Jira apps, open Jira configuration, and switch on Parallel sprints for company-managed spaces. This setting is part of Jira administration, so it requires the Administer Jira permission. To learn more about running sprints, see our article How to create and manage Jira sprints.
