Asana stops working properly in projects with more than ~1000 tasks hidden under collapsed sectionst

Yes. They need to fix it. Thats the whole issue here. I dont understand what you are argumenting?

1 Like

@Bastien_Siebman
You try to describe the issue of collapsed sections not working in larger projects as a feature. Why would you want a feature to stop working? How is that benefiting anyone? Instead of just loading collapsed sections in a more effective way. We highlight a problem that crash Asana and you defend it as it is a benefit? to whom?

The problem is that asana loads part of the project and when you scroll down it fetches more tasks when a project is big. So when the sections is collapsed it starts loading all the tasks at the same time because it thinks that you have scrolled to the end of the project.

A suggestion would be to only load the tasks in a section when its expanded. Then it would be possible to enter the project and start working in the last section for example. But as it is now its not possible to even access the project.

Its a issue with their lazy loading of the project.

1 Like

I am on your side guys :grimacing: I was just giving hints about what is happening, while approving this is definitely a bug. You should probably move it into the Bugs section of the forum. We’ll let @Rebecca_McGrath make sure it is escalated quickly as it is quite problematic!

2 Likes

Thank you @Bastien_Siebman , that is helpful. :raised_hands:
Your vote would also be appreciated.

We are not able to create topics in the Bugs category. This has been tested with 3 different users and computers. This issue has been reported to @Rebecca_McGrath in a separate topic and is now sent in a dm to her. If you are able to move it @Bastien_Siebman , please feel free to do it. :slight_smile:


The button is disabled specifically in the Bugs category.

UPDATE: Oh, I did have access to move the topics to bugs, it worked, thanks. Can’t just create new topics there it seems. But now the votes disappeared, so @Stephanie_Oberg and others’ votes are not visible anymore.

The bug category does not have votes indeed, only Product Feedback does.

I’ve discussed this a lot with Asana support in recent days and it seems that we found a reason (and solution). The problem is a project with more than 100-110 sections (doesn’t matter if they are opened or not). It’s strongly recommended to separate these sections into projects and then into portfolios. I’ve found that you can work with the project but with significant delays (usually 2-3 page timeouts).

From my observation I think that you can accelerate this issue by adding a lot of complicated tasks into sections - complicated means tasks with a lot of dependencies and multihomed in a lot of other projects. But in the end, it’s not a problem about a count of tasks, but sections.

I’m afraid this isn’t a bug but a technical limitation of Asana.

Thank you @Jan_Rajdl for increasing priority and investigating the source of the issue.

We have this problem with a project of <1500 tasks separated under <15 sections.

We have multiple projects whit these numbers that give the results posted with images in my first post.

Hmm in this case it looks really strange… I suppose that you already tried to solve the issue by Asana suggested steps: Asana supported browsers and troubleshooting steps | Product guide • Asana Product Guide ?

The problem is that Asana frontend app gets all tasks under all collapsed sections when a project is opened. It loads all 1500 tasks every time the user open the project. As stated in my first post it’s been tested on many computers and both web and on desktop app. Same problem for all.

The browser is not the issue. The link you posted is not solving anything. It’s built in to Asana app. Browser independent. It’s been tested, screenshot, recorded and sent to Asana support team.

I’m available for a video call to demo, respond to questions and test.

I run MacBook Pro m1 pro 2021 and the organization of 150 employees experiencing this limitation is mostly running on windows based dell setups.

It’s not a browser, os or hardware limitation. The problem is how Asana App loads tasks in projects with collapsed sections.

EDIT: The tasks in these projects don’t have dependencies but also belong to one more project.

Understood. So it’s a little bit different problem from mine, because I have open only dozens, maybe low hundreds of tasks in the project. But even though we’re running 2000+ Asana seats in our company, nobody works with such huge projects as 1500+ tasks. In case of some tasks are closed we aren’t facing any loading issues - even there are thousands of tasks.

I got a quite good advice from Asana support team - to separate bigger projects to a more smaller and aggregate them into a portfolio.

I hear you, different business, different use case, architecture and way of operations.

I just don’t get why they don’t change how tasks in projects with collapsed sections is loaded. They are wasting resources and creating a bad user experience instead of just do it more efficiently.

The point of collapsed sections is to hide information that is not relevant to the user on load. Why then load it? It’s broken as it is and it’s a clear opportunity to make the product better for teams, their clients.

They need to solve this bug, product limitation, it’s not going away until they load tasks in collapsed sections more effectively.

2 Likes

I agree totally. There is really no good reason for loading collapsed Sections.

Scale, Asana, scale.

2 Likes

Which is surprising as Asana is being used by very big clients, so they know they have to be scalable.

2 Likes

I agree @Bastien_Siebman it is surprising to me as well for the same reason. It seems to me like the support team, partners, and ambassadors have settled on the workarounds here instead of focusing on solving the core issue. It’s not going away if Asana doesn’t fix it.

Collapsed sections are not loading tasks efficiently. It is currently broken, fix it so we can utilize collapsed sections to their full potential. It is specifically good for projects with many 200+ tasks when it works.

When fixed, all these projects will load more efficiently not only those who currently break at ~1000 tasks.

When fixed Asana will ease the load on the client, network, and server whenever a user opens a project with many tasks under collapsed sections.

When fixed, there is no longer any need to communicate the workarounds and force their clients to invest in operational restructuring.

It is broken, it is worth the investment and it should be done as soon as possible. :pray:

As stated before, if something is unclear or Asana needs additional examples and details to proceed with the solution, I’m available for a video call to demo and test.

I don’t see anyone relying on a workaround, we are all saying this is broken :thinking:

1 Like

If we all focus on the core issue I’m happy.

I’m referring to the responses I’ve got since I started to report this issue,

Forum November 2021
2000+ tasks breaks Projects List view, unusable - #6 by JFrentz November 2021.

Email thread with support@asana.com November 21
"one workaround that the user could try is to break apart their current sections into multiple sections (by creating new sections and bulk moving tasks into the new section via multi-select). I’m unsure if they’ll run into other issues around having a very large project though. "

Demo in a video call and escalated the issue to @Kem_Ozbek February 2022

Raised this issue again with this thread Aug 2022

This is only noise, taking away focus and consuming time and resources from the real issue.

@Rebecca_McGrath can you please confirm this bug and give us an update on when it can be fixed? :pray:

I’m not relying on workarounds, but my team and I need to work - it’s the reason why I simply chose to find the smart solution and don’t cry on the forum :slight_smile: Honestly I don’t think that you have a chance to change this in weeks or months with any effort. You can see all around the forum how long it takes to change some significant functions of Asana (sometimes years).

Just change your workflow - it will be much faster than convincing Asana programmers to make any significant changes in the code. This issue is very individual because the count of unfinished tasks is very uncommon - if not in Asana, definitely in any well-driven project.

2 Likes

Hi @JFrentz and all, thanks for raising this again.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any updates other than the ones previously provided by our Support team and @Kem_Ozbek. Our Custom Investigation team are not classifying this as a bug but as a product limitation.

The Engineering team is aware of a few issues associated with too many tasks in a section, such as this one, but do not currently have a resolution. So, I suggest following one of the workarounds for now to prevent this issue from occurring.

If any updates do come my way, I’ll be sure to let you know.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed after 6 days. New replies are no longer allowed.