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There's a bug report that the original reporter no longer cares about and I can't reproduce the issue. Is there an English terminology used to tag those issues? Should they be kept open and tagged with that term (e.g. “timed out”) or should they be closed?

Note that this question is not the same as the one about bug not being relevant any longer. The issue still happens to the user who reported it and possibly many others who didn't. But currently, there's no way to test a fix or get more info.

Tomáš Zato
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    "unable to reproduce", "not reproducible" – user1666620 May 18 '16 at 12:48
  • The thing here is that it had the `unable to reproduce` status all along, but as long as the reportee cooperated, the issue could be fixed. Once he decided the problem is not that bad, I am not going to do anything about it of course. – Tomáš Zato May 18 '16 at 12:50
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    then if nobody cares any more, call it "no longer an issue". – user1666620 May 18 '16 at 12:52
  • Everyone's going to use a slightly different term for this, but some variant on the words "no" and "reproduce" will get the point across to pretty much everyone. Where I work we often use the abbreviation "CNR" (can not reproduce). – Ixrec May 18 '16 at 13:03
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    "won't fix" / "no plan to fix" seems more appropriate, though if no-one can reproduce it, mark it as that and close it. Bugs get fixed by subsequent code changes all the time. – gbjbaanb May 18 '16 at 13:04
  • If a defect can't be reproduced, how will you ever know if it's really been fixed ? – Peregrine May 18 '16 at 13:13
  • @peregrine: You'll never know. Just as you never know about all the bugs that get never reported in the first place. A bug that nobody complains about doesn't seem very important. – gnasher729 May 18 '16 at 15:19
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    Possible duplicate of [How to close a bug that is no longer relevant](http://programmers.stackexchange.com/questions/194542/how-to-close-a-bug-that-is-no-longer-relevant) – gnat May 18 '16 at 16:14
  • If you mark "not reproducible", the reporter may get annoyed if they can reproduce, and reopen it. If you mark "won't fix", and the reporter doesn't care, everyone can just go on with their day. – Gort the Robot May 18 '16 at 18:33

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If nobody thinks it is a problem anymore, then the ticket can be closed.

The reason for closure can be any descriptive reason, such as "not a defect", "not reproducible" or "not relevant anymore".

Bart van Ingen Schenau
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It depends of the workflow you use, and essentially the relations between developers and customers.

In Extreme Programming, it belongs to the customer representative to decide what to do with the ticket. She may consider that it's high priority and you should work on it, or low priority, or should be removed. Whether the bug is reproducible is a different story and should become a primary concern if and when the customer representative considers that the team should work on the issue.

If, on the other hand, in your workflow, it belongs to the developers or the project manager to consider the priority of a bug report, then, well, you have a choice. With no interest from the customer to work any longer (or at all; it often happens for projects where any customer can submit a bug report, especially when reports are submitted mostly automatically), you can decide either:

  • To continue inspecting the bug, trying to reproduce and eventually solve the issue.

  • To consider that the ROI of fixing this bug is probably below zero. This may happen on frequent basis, such as when the bug concerns an outdated version of the product.

    In this case, close the issue as “not reproducible”. Don't label it. Close it: you don't need to pollute your bug tracking system by keeping such bugs opened. Make sure your bug tracking system still keeps those bug reports accessible, including to your customers: such bug may be reopened by another customer who may be able to reproduce the issue.

Arseni Mourzenko
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It would be interesting to find out why the reporter is no longer interested. Are there more important bugs or has it just gone away?

The bug should of course have a low priority now and if it can't be reproduced, then I'd be inclined to set it to "monitor" (if you have such a status in your system) or leave it open with a status of "unable to reproduce".

If none of these alternatives are open to you, then add the necessary notes and close it off.

Robbie Dee
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  • I told the reporter why I *think* this happens to him and what can he do to avoid it. He apparently decided that's enough and did not pursue fix in the program. – Tomáš Zato May 18 '16 at 13:19
  • Is this a workaround or is the user just not using the system correctly? – Robbie Dee May 18 '16 at 13:32
  • It's a workaround that limits some of the uses of the computer while using the software in order to avoid the problems. It slightly reduces his comfort, but many other users might have potentionaly the same issue and never notice. – Tomáš Zato May 18 '16 at 13:59