We currently have a form-fed event request project that generates multiple department approval subtasks for each event (task). Subtasks assigned to me move between sections in My Tasks based on due date rules. As of the last two days, this movement seems to have triggered the approval subtask being added back to the main project somehow. As a result, the project treats it as a new task, reassigns the approval, and updates the due date according to project rules.
I’ve combed through the activity log, and there doesn’t seem to be any other actions or rules between the section movement and the approval being mysteriously added to the project.
I’ve already submitted a help ticket and will share any updates, but I’m curious, has anyone else experienced this recently?
Update: There does seem to be at least one other instance of this being reported in the Slack channels Slack
I am not sure this is related but what I know is that if a rule moves a task between sections in a project, and this rule applies on subtasks, it will create this weird behaviour where subtasks are added to the project (because moving a section to a section is adding the subtask to the project). Does it apply here?
When I reorganize sections in “My Tasks” (deleting sections, moving tasks between sections), it unexpectedly triggers project rules that have “Task moved to a section” as trigger condition.
Expected Behavior:
Project rules with “Task moved to a section” trigger should only fire when the task is moved within that project’s sections, not when I organize my personal “My Tasks” sections.
Actual Behavior:
Moving tasks in “My Tasks” triggered a project rule, which created review subtasks and sent CC notifications to team members.
Impact:
Unwanted notifications sent to team members
Duplicate subtasks created on completed tasks
Users afraid to organize their personal tasks
Suggested Fix:
Project rules should clearly scope to project sections only
Add a condition option: “Only trigger for changes within this project”
@Bastien_Siebman No, the rule that’s unexpectedly triggering this is only in My Tasks. There is nothing in the rule that should be assigning it to the event project or any of its sections.
Again, not sure if it helps, but we found out that if a rule in My Tasks applies to subtasks, it would also trigger for someone else’s task if the rule runs on the parent task owned by you.
e.g.: Bob has a My Tasks rule that says “If completed, post comment ‘YES’”. When I complete a subtask of a task assigned to Bob, it posts a comment on my task
Thanks for flagging this, Everyone!
Our Product team was notified about this, so we’ll work on getting to the bottom of this! If you notice any new developments, examples, or changes, please keep us informed.
I’ll be back with any updates from our end when possible!
When I reorganize sections in “My Tasks” (deleting sections, moving tasks between sections), it unexpectedly triggers project rules that have “Task moved to a section” as trigger condition.
Expected Behavior:
Project rules with “Task moved to a section” trigger should only fire when the task is moved within that project’s sections, not when I organize my personal “My Tasks” sections.
Actual Behavior:
Moving tasks in “My Tasks” triggered a project rule, which created review subtasks and sent CC notifications to team members.
Impact:
Unwanted notifications sent to team members
Duplicate subtasks created on completed tasks
Users afraid to organize their personal tasks
Suggested Fix:
Project rules should clearly scope to project sections only
Add a condition option: “Only trigger for changes within this project”
I am having a similar issue.
About 4 days ago, 4 of my rules started causing me grief. When moving subtasks between sections within a project, a rule on a different project containing the main task will trigger. This causes subtasks to be multiplied, deleted, moved and more without my input. I can’t tell if the issue is getting worse, but I turned them on and checked and I got 4 rules to trigger errantly for one move that should have had 0.
I have never had a problem with rules triggering errantly, so I have built several workflows in Asana that take my projects from start to finish.
This is a brand new issue, and I am having to run with a handful of rules paused, which is causing further grief.
Hey team. My Tasks rules can be a pain and ruin workflows. I’ve been guilty of it myself (created a rule that kept the due date but removed the due time).
You may want to try a My Tasks structure that doesn’t use any rules. I recently released this video of my new My Tasks structure. Give it a gander
I am experiencing a similar issue with one of my rules and it’s only taken effect since last week (w/c 2nd feb 26)
The rule is:
Task is in COMPLETE column it will unassign any assignees and clear collaborators (to prevent future notifications)
This is applicable to subtasks, which is required
We have never had an issue with this before and only when the subtask reaches the COMPLETE column the rule would take effect. But now, if the parent recipe is in COMPLETE, it is clearing the assignee and the collaborators when in a different column.
The other odd thing is it only affects the person who is assigning something to themselves.
Person A assigns to themselves (Person A), rule triggers and they are unassigned
Person B assigns to person A, rule doesn’t trigger and the assignee remains.
Hi, for anybody that has been having issues with sub-tasks automatically being added back into the parent project (even when decoupled), Asana are still looking into this but I believe I have just found the issue and a fix. It looks like a default setting was applied across all rules in some projects on 01/02. If you go to the rules in the PARENT project and ensure the settings are updated to toggle OFF the “Run on sub-tasks” option, this should stop the sub-tasks being auto added the parent projects. Even when making changes solely on the sub-tasks that are decouped from the project with the parent task/project, it seems it was looking up the rules in the Parent project because of this toggle being on. Since I have switched it off, rules are running as normal
Thank you!! I was also running into issues with rules being applied to subtasks. When I checked the settings, I noticed that ‘Run on subtasks’ was toggled on. I didn’t toggle this on when creating the rule.
