These answer are pretty outdated. Some work in certain situations, but this is in the documentation. https://select2.org/programmatic-control/add-select-clear-items#preselecting-options-in-an-remotely-sourced-ajax-select2
Basically you need create and append the selected options.
// Set up the Select2 control
$('#mySelect2').select2({
ajax: {
url: '/api/students'
}
});
// Fetch the preselected item, and add to the control
var studentSelect = $('#mySelect2');
$.ajax({
type: 'GET',
url: '/api/students/s/' + studentId
}).then(function (data) {
// create the option and append to Select2
var option = new Option(data.full_name, data.id, true, true);
studentSelect.append(option).trigger('change');
// manually trigger the `select2:select` event
studentSelect.trigger({
type: 'select2:select',
params: {
data: data
}
});
});