## [How to Find Unused Workflows, Schemes and Custom Fields in Jira](/blog/find-unused-workflows-schemes-jira.md)

October 14, 2026 ·

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7 min read

[NGPilot](https://ngpilot.com)

Quick Answer

On **Premium and Enterprise**, open **Settings → System → Site optimizer**. On **Free and Standard** that panel does not exist, and — less usefully than you might expect — Atlassian's free CLI doesn't cover workflows either, so the honest answer for lower tiers is the per-scheme optimizer (available on all four plans) plus manual checks. Whatever route you take, remove a custom field from its **screen first** and the instance last.

Jira configuration does not rot the way Confluence content does — nobody notices a redundant workflow scheme on a page. It shows up as slowness. Atlassian's own cleanup guidance notes that too many custom fields can clutter an instance and affect its performance, and that every field is evaluated during create, update and index operations.

The hunt is the easy part, once you know which tool applies to you. The awkward part is that Atlassian gates its site-wide cleanup tooling to the top two plans — and the free fallback doesn't fully cover the gap.

What you'll learn

1. What Site optimizer covers, and the plan it needs
2. What Atlassian's free CLI actually does and doesn't cover
3. How Atlassian defines an "unused" field — the five conditions
4. Why an archived project still pins a scheme
5. The removal order that keeps you able to undo it

**Tags:**

* [jira](/blog/tags/jira.md)
* [jira-admin](/blog/tags/jira-admin.md)
* [configuration](/blog/tags/configuration.md)
* [cleanup](/blog/tags/cleanup.md)
* [how-to](/blog/tags/how-to.md)

[**Read more**](/blog/find-unused-workflows-schemes-jira.md)