Prevent being a collaborator on task creation

I have an integration with Zapier to create dozens of tasks and sub-tasks. it all works great. However, because I’m the authorized Zapier contact, everything is ‘created by me’ – which means I’m automatically added as a collaborator on every task. I can set additional collaborators through Zapier, but can’t seem to figure out how to prevent myself from being added as a collaborator. Any ideas out there?

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There’s no way to disable that “automatic collaborator” functionality. Two possible solutions to suggest (yes, both have drawbacks which I mention…):

  1. Use the API to remove the collaborator after the task is created; or for that matter, use the API to create the task and then remove the collaborator. (Yeah, I know this option kinda defeats the purpose and convenience of using Zapier, but I wanted to present all of the solutions I’m aware of.)

  2. Create a “fake” user and have that be the user account that creates the tasks in Zapier. (Yeah, I know, that takes up a user slot.)

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Thanks for the feedback – I hadn’t though about using a Zapier flow to remove the collaborator – which I thought was a good idea – however, after looking at it, it doesn’t look like that’s an option in Zapier.

I had thought about creating a new user, but we’re on a minimal paid plan and if we add another team member in the coming moths, we’ll be at our max capacity, so we literally can’t afford to have Zapier use its own license… as you mentioned.

I meant to use the Asana API to remove the collaborator, not Zapier (which can’t do it as you mentioned). But that does require you to have access to a developer (or hire one - contact @Bastien_Siebman if you’re interested in that latter approach).

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thanks will take a look!

Would love to see some flexibility in Asana regarding this auto-collaborator feature. Like @JD_Nelson we have an issue with using such a large quantity of tasks… which in turn creates a large quantity of My Tasks. We also have individually designated/assigned templates… My Tasks becomes cluttered and highly irritating.

Hi @Phil_Seeman,

We’re having the same issue with Asana (collaborator added to every Zapier task) and Asana Support don’t understand the issue.

A few months ago we started using your workaround of adding a new “fake” team member, and this workaround has been working great!

Unfortunately we’ve just added a 5 “real” member of our team, and the “fake” team member has increased our monthly bill from £30/month to £115/month!!! We don’t think we should be paying £85/month for Asana’s bug.

We’re not happy that Asana won’t acknowledge the deficiency in a key integration.

We’ve looked into downgrading the “fake” user to a free account (moving one team to premium) but Asana Support are not willing to help with this either: How to Upgrade & Manage Billing Options in Asana | Product guide • Asana Product Guide

Is this something you can help with or is it time to cancel Asana?

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