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title: "Initial synchronization (data migration)"
canonical: "https://support.appfire.com/space/TSH/1800341306/Initial%20synchronization%20(data%20migration)"
format: markdown
---
Initial synchronization gives you possibility to synchronize (migrate) Jira Issues and TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) Work Items that were created before  TFS4JIRA Synchronizer  has been installed. Trial limit For trial licenses in Jira Server only 30 issues / work items can be synchronized per one synchronization, full version has no limits. Updates made in Jira items within the last 25 minutes might not be considered for initial synchronization due to Atlassian's indexing delay. If you want to include all recently updated items, wait for 25 minutes to ensure all Jira updates are included. This applies to Jira Cloud only. Finding the initial synchronization screen To perform initial synchronization for given synchronization profile go to the  Synchronization profiles  screen and click  Initial Synchronization  in the  Operations  section. Setting the initial synchronization options The initial synchronization screen is shown below. The following options have to be specified before synchronization can be started: Last update  dates range Only entities (issues / work items) that have their  last update  date between the given range will be processed by the initial synchronization process. Synchronization direction : TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) -> Jira Jira -> TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) Synchronization mode : There are three options available: Synchronize unpaired entities only  -  This is the default and recommended initial synchronization mode. Only issues / work items that have no counterparts created by Synchronizer yet will be processed. For each such entity, a new counterpart will be created and paired with a given entity. Synchronize both unpaired and already paired entities (update counterparts)  -  Recommended when initial synchronization was already performed in the past and you need to force Synchronizer to resynchronize all work items. Not-yet-paired entities will be handled just like in default mode (new counterparts will be created). For each already paired issue / work item its counterpart will be updated. Synchronize both unpaired and already paired entities (create new counterparts)  -  Not-yet-paired entities will be handled just like in default mode (new counterparts will be created). For each already paired issue and work item, its counterpart will be  deleted,  and a new counterpart will be created. Please note that as this mode involves removing issues and work items, performing both Jira and TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) backup is strongly recommended before running synchronization in this mode. When synchronizing in the Jira -> TFS / Azure DevOps (formerly VSTS) direction, you will be asked about a list of read-only Jira statuses. If you use the default Jira workflow, the default value ("Closed") should be sufficient.  Starting and stopping the initial synchronization When all options are specified, you can start the initial synchronization. Synchronization can take up to several hours, depending on the number of items to synchronize. You can stop it anytime and restart with the same settings later. Understanding the status section of initial synchronization screen The current state of synchronization is displayed below the configuration options. For each synchronization direction, you will find: When initial synchronization for a given profile was previously performed. Number of Issues/Work Items that were correctly synchronized. Number of Issues/Work Items that were skipped because has been synchronized before. Number of errors during synchronization.