CSV Import - "Subtask of" not recognized

When using the CSV import, it’s not recognizing the “Subtask of” field and is importing it as a text field. Even when rows 3-6 are a subtask of row 2, it won’t recognize it. It also won’t let me select the Subtask of field. Importing only “parent” tasks first and then importing only subtasks also does not resolve it.

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Hi @K.R_Drake, and thanks for the report.

If you haven’t yet, I’d recommend reading through this section of our guide which give shows you how to set your csv before importing it in Asana: Asana CSV Importer • Asana Product Guide

If this doesn’t help, I’d recommend reaching out to our support team following these steps: https://forum.asana.com/t/how-do-i-contact-support/19057/7?u=marie. if you could provide them with the info listed below, they should be able to look into this for you:

  • Steps to reproduce the issue
  • Your CSV file
  • URL of the project you’re trying to import your task into - or are you creating a brand new project?
  • Possibly a screencast (I’ve added some tips below), that would really help speed up investigations or at least screenshot illustrating the issue,

Screencast:
Loom is a great app for video screencasts: https://www.useloom.com/

In your video screencast, we recommend that you use a Chrome Incognito window and have your Javascript console open:

Try to include the entire browser window, including URL bar, in the video screencast.

Let me know if there is anything else we can help with!

I’m getting the same issue

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Hi Juan -
I was able to resolve this by finding a row with the task name blank. All the other fields, including Subtask Of, were filled. Once I deleted that row, it recognized the “Subtask of” field. Hope that helps.

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We are having the same issues with sub task imports and dependents. They are only appearing as texts in the fields section and not adding sub tasks linking dependents to the parent task.

Just noticed that you example screen shot provided for the Dependents actually doesn’t highlight the appropriate example as the “notes section” is extended over the text in the dependents section. This proves to be less than helpful.

Hi @Kate_Manchester,

I was able to resolve this by finding any tasks with a blank “task name” and then making sure that any “Subtask of” were below the actual task. As soon as I did that, it recognized the “Subtask of” field.

I hope that helps!

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Hi all,

I am having an issue with subtasks of importing as subtasks. I am not sure I follow @K.R_Drake. Can you put a screenshot of the actual csv?

Hi @Morgan_Marler,

Since I encountered that issue a while ago, the CSV is long gone. Basically, there were two things contributing to the error:

  • Task Name fields being blank
  • Subtasks must be in rows below the main task

Once both of those were resolved, it recognized the field and imported correctly.

Hope that helps!

Same issue and there are no blank tasks in me ‘name’ header and all parent tasks are placed above sub tasks. So K.R_Drake’ solve unfortunately does not work for me. Any other suggestions?

3 Likes

@Henni_Terness Did you find a solution? I’m having the same issue - no tasks names are blank and it will not allow me to select sub task as the proper import column.

unfortunately i didn’t. i’ve spent countless hours over the past few weeks on this and other challenges (free version, i should add, as my small startup won’t pay, at least for now, so guess i can’ complain) and trying to manually hack around them. starting to really dislike asana for anything more than small basic lists of things. not replacing MSP, which i wish i’d stuck to. i am now down a path of no return with a client that is attached to the calendar view and me spending 16 hours days to try stay on top of my program(s).

I’m sorry to hear that, @henni_terness. I played around with my import template and any subtask that was directly under the parent task I removed the section/column information for that task line, that might have allowed it to work. I did several tweaks to the template so I’m not 100% sure but that was the most significant - might be worth a shot.

Screen Shot 2020-02-17 at 9.34.18 AM|690x65

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Oh wow, that would not have occurred to me to try. Will keep this in mind if i ever attempt a larger csv load again. Thank you!

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One other issue that can cause Subtask of to be disabled as a selection during import is if ANY of your entries in the subtasks column of your CSV don’t directly match the name of a task in the Name field.

I was using Google Sheets and dragged to fill the subtask entry with the Name of the parent task, and there was a number in it, so it auto-incremented the number without me realizing and prevented me form selecting subtask as a column import type during import.

Hi @Marie!
It took me a while, but I’ve managed to figure out the imports from a CSV file. One of the issues, it seems, it a minor error in your CSV importer manual where it says “The parent task should be located below the current row in the CSV file.” while the parent task is recognized when it is ABOVE the task that should be the child task.
Weronika

You’re :100: right @Weronika, thank you so much for the report, I’ve filed a task for our Guide team to update the CSV importer manual with the correct information!

I have a CSV file with 284 tasks (114) are subtasks.

I can get a small sample of my project to import with subtasks, but when I try to import the entire project, no subtasks are created.

I’ve also tried using Subtask of and Parent task fields, and still can’t get it to work.

I’ve spent more time trying to figure out the import and could have done this more timely with manually creating the project.

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@Ryan_Sunderman did you eventually get your import to work?

Yes, BUT, I had to import under a certain number of tasks at a time to get it to work. If I did too many sections together, the import did not correctly create subtasks. Very strange.

I even tried exporting an existing project with many sections and subtasks to use as a template for my import, and couldn’t get it to import as expected.