What I’m trying to do:
I run a content calendar where one piece of content can go out on several channels. Each channel gets its own subtask, colour-coded so I can see at a glance what’s going out where. For that colour-coding to work, each subtask needs to actually be a member of the project.
What I’ve tried so far:
When I create a subtask under a parent task, the subtask’s Projects panel is already pre-populated with the parent’s project, before I’ve done anything. I asked Asana’s support chatbot about this directly, and they confirmed this isn’t supposed to happen, subtasks aren’t meant to inherit project membership from their parent at all.
Despite that, the subtask’s project field is already filled in, and I can edit project-specific custom fields on it straight away. I assumed it was genuinely attached and set one of those fields.
It wasn’t actually attached. Checking via Asana’s API showed the subtask’s project membership as empty, even though the screen showed otherwise. I tested this seven times and got the same result every time, including when the parent only belonged to one project, so it’s not about having multiple projects.
Manually re-adding the project fixes it, the subtask then shows up correctly in Calendar view. But checking the API again afterward still shows it as not attached, even though it’s now working properly on screen.
One more strange thing: if you try to remove the pre-filled project from a subtask before manually adding it yourself, Asana shows a message saying “This project was added from the parent task, remove it from the parent task to also remove it here.” So the interface is telling you this is a real, intentional connection, while everything else (the API, and Asana’s own support team) says it shouldn’t exist at all.
What’s not working or confusing:
Everything contradicts everything else. The screen shows a project connection that isn’t real. Asana’s support confirms it shouldn’t be there. A tooltip insists it’s protected and inherited. The API says there’s nothing there. And the actual practical result is that content silently doesn’t show up where it should, with no warning at any point.
Has anyone else run into this?
