As an Asana Super Admin, is there any way to identify the Owner and/or Assignee of a private Task? We are in a mid-size organization (300+) and with all of the Rules and Ai automation in play, it is easy to end up with Tasks created by… nobody, well, by no human. I had presumed that as a Super Admin I would be able to load a Task URL and at least see some info about it, but all I can see is the standard…
" Looks like you need access to this task. Would you like to send a request to the owner?"
I and others have requested access for several days now, no response. Does anyone know of any method to get any info about a private Task? Maybe via Asana API? Please share any ideas. Thanks.
@Aj_D - what plan is your organization on? If you’re on Enterprise or above, you can use a service account and the GET task endpoint of the API. Alternatively, you could use the new work access mode.
Thanks for the info and tips. I was not aware of the Work Access Mode. That seemed the faster, more straightforward route, so I gave that a try. Unfortunately, I was surprised that even after enabling Work Access Mode, when I tried to access a private Task, I still only got the standard blocked access response…
" Looks like you need access to this task. Would you like to send a request to the owner?"
Work access mode is especially useful in situations like employee onboarding, offboarding, or team and role transitions, where access to current or past work is critical for ensuring business continuity and maintaining organizational security. It also allows super admins to assist other team members by granting access to relevant tasks or projects when needed.
This seemed like a bug to me, so I emailed Asana Support, but this was their response…
“Task access depends on the task’s privacy setting and potentially the privacy settings of the project it’s in. The issue you’re experiencing seems to be related to specific task permissions, it might be worth reviewing your task and project privacy settings.”
Umm… yes, that is why I’m using Work Access Mode BECAUSE a rogue Task is inaccessible by anyone in our organization. I will respond to the Asana Support but am wondering here if Work Access Mode doesn’t actually do what Asana Documentation says it does?
@Aj_D - that response sounds to me like they were responding to general questions about permissions instead of work access mode-specific questions, as I also thought that mode gave you full visibility of all objects in your organization.
This is strange. From my understanding, the Work Access Mode should have allowed this view.
Have you searched for the task via the advance search? I am just think if there might be different ways to access the private task other than its URL.
Good point. I was only provided with the URL (that is typically how people share Asana tasks in Slack and not everyone knows how to do that in a way that kicks in the Asana Slack app). However, I can reach out and ask for the actual Asana Task name and attempt to access it that. Thanks.
I received an update from Asana Support apologizing for misreading my initial support request. Support provided several options for dealing with rogue private Tasks, most of them around security settings and password resets, but the list surprisingly did not include Work Access Mode, which was the whole point of my support ticket to begin with, “Work Access Mode Denied Access”. I will respond to them again and ask them to please answer the main question, “should Work Access Mode allow a Super Admin access to all Tasks, yes or no?”.
Following were the options that Support provided, in case it is helpful to anyone…
Super Admin Rogue Task Options
Please know that super admins have several methods to identify and resolve issues with rogue private tasks.
Super Admins have access to organization-wide security settings, which allows them to oversee and manage security across the entire organization.
When a user is deprovisioned via SCIM or API, a “Previously assigned tasks” project is automatically created. Super Admins can customize settings to determine who becomes the owner of this project, allowing them to review and reassign tasks as needed.
Super Admins become members of auto-generated projects containing tasks from deactivated users, giving them access to these potentially rogue private tasks.
Super Admins can enforce security policies at an organizational level, which may help prevent the creation of unauthorized private tasks.
While not specifically addressing rogue private tasks, Super Admins have the ability to reset passwords for all users, which could be useful in accessing accounts suspected of creating unauthorized private tasks.
@Aj_D - Sorry you’re having so much back-and-forth for this; I did just test with work access mode and if you turn it on first and then visit your URL, I think it should let you access it. I am a super admin in my org and tested this process and it worked.
If you’ve already tried that specific order and it still isn’t working, since you do have the URL and have already been waiting for access for multiple days now, you might want to just use the API with a service account (see my first response, obviously in the future it would be much more user-friendly to just do this through work access mode). The task_gid field is the string of numbers after the last / in the URL.
Thanks for the info Stephen. I fairly sure I used the same procedure you had. From the browser, in Asana Admin Console, as a Super Admin, I went to ‘Launch Asana > Work Access Mode’, which opened a new tab with the ‘Work Access Mode’ banner in the header. I then opened a new tab and pasted the rogue task URL, and I got the “Looks like you need access to this task” message.
I can certainly try it again in case my memory of the steps I took is incorrect. Thanks.
Thanks for that info Stephen. I have been holding the API option as my last resort, mainly because I don’t have it setup yet, and would take more time. I should do that, because I will want to see what other benefits the API will bring our company. If I do not get a satisfactory answer from Asana Support after asking them to answer the question (above) explicitly, then I will move on to the API. Thanks!
[Off Topic]
Completely off topic, but is the inability to edit posts after you post them a new change? I could be remembering wrong, but I’ve been on this forum since around 2016, off and on (different user), and I thought for sure we had the ability to edit our own posts after they were posted? Am I imagining things?
The Asana forum is still based on discourse.org, correct?
I received another response from Asana Support, they answered my direct question…
Q: should Asana Work Access Mode allow a Super Admin access to all Tasks, regardless of Task settings or permissions, yes or no?
A: Yes, Work Access Mode allows Super Admins to access both public and private work content within Asana. With this feature, Super Admins can use advanced search to locate tasks, projects, and portfolios across the organization, even if they’re private. Previously, Super Admins could only view private tasks or projects if they had been added to them directly. Work Access Mode removes this limitation, giving super admins full visibility when needed.
Based on this answer, I responded with my original question, why I am unable, while in Work Access Mode, to access several of the rogue private tasks I’ve been trying to resolve for users? We will see what they say.
The solution may be what @Rashad_Issa had implied, I have been trying to access these rogue private tasks via URL, because that is the only info I have about them. It might be the Work Access Mode cannot use Task URLs, and must instead use the advance search tool? I hope that is not the case, since I have been unable to get any info about these rogue private tasks other than their URLs.
RE: post editing - I think this should still be available (I still see it for me, do you no longer have the pencil icon on your posts?)
RE: most recent support answer; definitely update this thread with their response, as I also assumed that using a direct URL would work for private tasks/projects once work access mode is enabled (indeed, that seems to be the case for me from my limited testing - I’ve toggled WAM on/off and watched task/projects get blocked/shown successfully, for example). If that’s not 100% accurate, it would be good feedback to provide as they iterate the feature, as that should be an extremely common use case IMO.
Post Editing
Hmm… I do not see a way to ‘post-edit’ my post? I do not see any pencil or other icon that would indicate the post is editable? Does anyone else?
UPDATE
I heard back from Asana Support with an unexpected answer. They had asked for some rogue private task URLs so that they could investigate. After providing them, they had the following response…
I tried to access the task URLs that you have provided us with.
I can confirm that these task URLs are permanently deleted and cannot be recovered. I am so sorry about this. With that being said, this is the reason why you are unable to access these tasks.
I was not expecting that answer, primarily because I would have thought that if I was trying to access a deleted task, the message I received would be different than…
“Looks like you need access to this task. Would you like to send a request to the owner?”
While this potentially resolves this mystery, it opens up a new question about why a deleted task message is asking if I “would like to send a request to the owner”? We will see what Asana Support says about this.
Hi @Aj_D, thanks for sharing! This information about permanently deleted tasks and Work Access Mode will definitely help others.
I can confirm that, unfortunately, there’s currently no distinction between the “access denied” message for tasks you don’t have permission to view and those that have been permanently deleted. Because the system detects a “lack of permission” in both cases, it triggers the same message. I completely understand how this can be confusing, and hopefully this is something that our Product team can change in the future.
Since you’re already in touch with our Support team, they can log your feedback for our Product team on their end, but if you wish, feel free to also create a Product feedback topic in our English Forum > Product Feedback category where other users can up vote your request here in the Forum.
Also, editing permissions in the Forum are based on activity and engagement, but I’ve updated yours so you can now edit comments and posts moving forward.
Thanks for the info and the permission upgrade Vanessa, I appreciate it.
Mystery solved. I don’t suppose there is any way to identify what the deleted Task title was, or maybe what project(s) it was connected to, or person it was assigned to?
No worries, @Aj_D, I’m happy to help! I don’t believe Support has a way to check that information. Once tasks are permanently deleted, they’re removed from our database for privacy and security reasons, which is why neither Support nor Engineers can recover them, for example. (This may also explain why the system doesn’t differentiate between access issues caused by permissions and those caused by a permanently deleted task.)
That said, I’d still recommend checking with Support to see if there’s any way to identify the task for you. I hope they can help you further!
