Symptoms

When searching for issues using JIRA Query Language (JQL) as in Advanced Searching, the was operator may return an error similar to the one below. 

The error "The value 'administrator' does not exist for the field 'assignee'." (this example) indicates that administrator  is not a valid value for the field assignee.  The error here is thrown in the interface, and not is not logged in JIRA.

 (Note: This operator can be used with the Assignee, Fix Version, Priority,  Reporter, Resolution and Status fields only.)

Cause

This can error can be caused by a few things:

• Misconfigured settings in 'General Configuration'
• Could be related to the following bugs
  • JRASERVER-28091 - Assignee history (WAS / CHANGED FROM) not searchable by either full name or user name when searching anonymously
  • JRASERVER-26953 - 'WAS' operator does not work with full names in advanced searching
• It could also be that there truly is no user named 'administrator'

Workaround

Please navigate to Administration > General Configuration and verify that the below options are enabled, if not please enable them and try searching again

• User Searching By Full Name (JIRA 4.0.x - 4.4.x only)
• User email visibility
• JQL Auto-complete