Sudden 'No Authorization' error on API calls

Hey,
We have had a perfectly working integration with the API for a few years now and suddenly yesterday, we started receiving ‘No Authorization’ errors when creating tasks, adding tags or creating subtasks. The issue is that it seems completely random. I execute the same code and sometimes it creates the task but fails when adding the tag(s), sometimes it creates the task, adds the tags and creates 4 sub tasks before failing, other times it creates 9 subtasks before failing. I definitely have a valid token (evidenced by the fact that I can create the task in the first place) and there is nothing in the code/task/sub-task itself causing it because otherwise, it would consistently fail at the same point.

401 error looks like: (example of it failing what adding a tag to a task)

{“errors”:[{“message”:“Not Authorized”,“help”:“For more information on API status codes and how to handle them, read the docs on errors: xxxx/docs/errors”}]} [headers] => Httpful\Response\Headers Object ( [headers:Httpful\Response\Headers:private] => Array ( [date] => Wed, 19 Oct 2022 16:08:45 GMT [content-type] => application/json; charset=UTF-8 [content-length] => 181 [connection] => keep-alive [server] => nginx [cache-control] => no-store [pragma] => no-cache [x-frame-options] => DENY [x-xss-protection] => 1; mode=block [x-content-type-options] => nosniff [content-security-policy] => report-uri xxxxxxcsp_report?report_only=false;default-src ‘none’;frame-src ‘none’;frame-ancestors ‘none’ [x-asana-api-version] => 1.0 [asana-change] => name=new_project_templates;info=xxxxxx/t/a-new-api-for-project-templates/156432 [x-robots-tag] => none ) ) [raw_headers] => HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2022 16:08:45 GMT Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8 Content-Length: 181 Connection: keep-alive Server: nginx Cache-Control: no-store pragma: no-cache X-Frame-Options: DENY X-XSS-Protection: 1; mode=block X-Content-Type-Options: nosniff Content-Security-Policy: report-uri xxxxx/csp_report?report_only=false;default-src ‘none’;frame-src ‘none’;frame-ancestors ‘none’ X-Asana-Api-Version: 1.0 Asana-Change: name=new_user_task_lists;info=xxxxx/t/update-on-our-planned-api-changes-to-user-task-lists-a-k-a-my-tasks/103828 Asana-Change: name=external_goal_metrics;info=xxxxxx/t/changes-to-goal-metrics-progress-sources/221257 Asana-Change: name=new_project_templates;info=xxxxxx/t/a-new-api-for-project-templates/156432 X-Robots-Tag: none [request] => Httpful\Request Object ( [uri] => xxxxxxx/tasks/1203201504120948/addTag [method] => POST [headers] => Array ( [content-type] => application/json [X-Asana-Client-Lib] => version=0.5.0&language=PHP&language_version=7.2.24-0ubuntu0.18.04.13&os=Linux&os_version=4.15.0-192-generic [Authorization] => Bearer xxxx

If anyone has any ideas about how I can troubleshoot this, I would be super grateful.

thanks so much

Exact same issue here. A Make automation has run smoothly for 6 months and I’m now getting “[401] Not Authorized” error seemingly randomly amongst multiple scenario…

Calling in @sasha_f and @Phil_Seeman

Thanks,

Larry

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Wow, that does seem odd - since it seems to be happening on different objects at different times, that’s what makes it tough to diagnose. I don’t have any ideas at the moment but I’ll see if I can rustle up some help.

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Hey,
The errors have stopped without any code changes from my side so whatever the error was seems to be resolved. Thanks very much

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We have seen the exact same thing happen recently - a total of 18 occurrences, with the first occurrence at 2022-10-18 11:40 am Pacific Time and the last at 2022-10-19 09:32 am Pacific time.

There’s no particular rhyme or reason - these 401 errors seemingly occurred at random, irrespective of the project or the operation being performed (e.g., removing a task, adding a task, updating a task, etc.)

Encountered “Unrecoverable error: A request to Asana can’t be completed and is returning an error: Not Authorized”

Processing started 20 Oct '22 08:03 UTC
Process time: 3h4m2s
Status: Failed

Hey folks, thanks for bringing this to our attention. We’re currently looking into it. I’ll try to provide an update by EOD

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Ok I have an update, the intermittent 401’s should begin subsiding. The infrastructure change rollout that caused this was halted and reverted, and it can take a little time for all the hosts to return to the previous state. Please let us know on this thread if you continue receiving intermittent 401’s beyond the next 6-ish hours.

Thanks!

2 Likes

No further issues on our side. Thanks very much

Hi, I just had the same scenario with 401 {“errors”:[{“message”:“Not Authorized”,“help”:“For more information on API status codes and how to handle them, read the docs on errors: Errors”}]}

I’ve started having this issue over the last week or so. What is the solution?

Yikes! The previous cause was an issue with an infrastructure change that Asana made, so there was no user-implementable solution in that case.

@paulminors, is it any particular API endpoint(s) you can identify that it’s happening on? Is it pretty consistent, or only sporadic?

@John_Vu @AndrewWong , any ideas here why Paul is getting these errors?

Thanks for the reply @Phil_Seeman.

I’ve set up an integration with Zapier to create a subtask using a webhook by posting to the URL:

https://app.asana.com/api/1.0/tasks/[task ID]/setParent

And I get the following error:

Not Authorized (HTTP Status Code: 401)

Just to be clear: this was working and now it’s stopped working; or it has not yet worked at all?

Somehow im currently also unable to make API calls. I just updated my Python Asana Client Version and made the necessary changes and now I get the error @paulminors mentioned. I also tried refreshing my PAT but this did not help. I tested this for the “Get Project”, “Get Task” and “Get Template” endpoints.

@Noah_Farr, Can you try it in Postman or equivalent tool, just to take the client out of the equation and isolate your call to only the API layer itself?

Sorry for the slow response. Yes, it was working before. The issue just started the other day. But I haven’t had any Zapier errors the last few days so maybe it’s sorted itself out now.

@paulminors @Noah_Farr @Juan_Carlos_Aguilar I just got word from an Asana contact that their engineering team worked on this issue and thinks it should be resolved now. Could you try it again? (And Paul, you may be seeing the results of this fix.)

Thanks for following this up Phil. I appreciate the help. I’ll let you know if the issue persists.