Tasks duplicate when re-importing

[Lori]

Hi,

I've got two different projects for which we're keeping task related
information in a spreadsheet, and then we will import periodically into MS
Project. I've set up the import map with the merge key defined, and I can
succesfully pull the data in.

However, for ONE of the projects, when I import the spreadsheet again for
the updated information, the tasks are getting duplicated. It's as if it
doesn't recognize the merge key. I am selecting the option to "merge the data
with the current project". For the other project, the re-import works just
fine. Both spreadsheets have a similar format with a "task ID" type of column
as the merge key.

I appreciate any thoughts / suggestions on this. I would prefer to merge,
rather than delete everything and re-import the whole thing. This will get to
be too much information over time as tasks are added and closed out.

Thanks,
Lori

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Sounds like you have different task IDs between import runs or between the
two project files. Remember that the task ID is dynamic and a task's ID
may change whenever the task list is sorted and will change for certain if a
new task is inserted above the task in question. The only fix is to insure
that the task IDs in the two project files and in the spreadsheet data are
all identical. There's another ID, Unique ID, that is set when the task is
added and will not change and you might be able to use that instead.