On occasion, those technical gremlins can kick off and when you open your project task list in Microsoft Project, it is not showing the information as expected. It may be just a simple task of having to reconnect the SharePoint Task List with Microsoft Project.

When troubleshooting the BrightWork Task List to Microsoft Project, the first place I check is to see that the right SharePoint Task List is speaking to the right Microsoft Project file.

If using BrightWork, you must ensure that you are using the Project Structured template if you wish to do the sync.

And as always, create a backup or test beforehand!

Tiip: Use Internet Explorer when troubleshooting SharePoint. Other browsers may not behave in the same manner i.e. Chrome may download the file rather than open it via the Browser or from the server location.

Reconnect the SharePoint Task List with Microsoft Project Professional

Check Site Assets

1. Browse to “Site Contents”
2. Check if the “Site Assets” app exists
3. Verify that the “BrightWork – Project Structured Sync” file exists
4. Copy the server URL of the file e.g. https://2013.brightworkdemo.com/sites/CMcCarthy/Project17/SiteAssets/BrightWork%20-%20Project%20Structured%20Sync.mpp
5. Paste to a location where you can copy it several times after e.g. Notepad, Notes, etc.

Open in Microsoft Project

1. 1. 1. Open Microsoft Project Professional (it must be Professional for the Sync to work)
      2. Click on “Open Other Project”
      3. Click on the “SharePoint” option
      4. Click on one of the options on the right
      5. Paste the URL of the location of the .mpp file copied from earlier i.e. https://2013.brightworkdemo.com/sites/CMcCarthy/Project17/SiteAssets/
         • Note: This does not include the file name i.e. BrightWork%20-%20Project%20Structured%20Sync.mpp
           
      6. Depending on where the file is located, you may be prompted for a username and password.
      7. After a moment, a new .mpp file will appear. This should match the name of the file in the “Site Assets” from the steps above. Click Open
         
      8. There may be information in the file. Generally, the .mpp file contains just 3 lines
         

Reconnect SharePoint Task List

1. 1. 1. Staying in the .mpp file just opened, browse to File then Save As
      2. Click on “Sync with SharePoint” (1)
      3. Paste in the site address (2) i.e. https://2013.brightworkdemo.com/sites/CMcCarthy/Project17/
         • Note: This is the address of the site i.e. remove SiteAssets/* from the copied URL
      4. Click “Verify Address” (3) to confirm the address exists
      5. Chose the task list from the dropdown (4). Generally, there is only one task list in a BrightWork Project site.
      6. Click “Save” (5)
      7. Microsoft Project will start to pull in the information from the SharePoint Task List. This will reconnect the SharePoint Task List.

Clean Up

Sometimes, it will append the new date with the old information in your .mpp file. The redundant information can be deleted off, and the .mpp file updated as normal. However, when you do your first save, a message may appear to let you know that there is a delta between the SharePoint Task List with Microsoft Project file. Select which version is correct.

Verify

1. 1. 1. Close the .mpp file
      2. Go back to the project site and browse to the task list. Or if the page is still open, press F5 to refresh the page.
      3. Open the task list in Microsoft Project through the browser in List/Open with Project
         
      4. The connection between the SharePoint Task List with Microsoft Project file should now be back working. All changes made in BrightWork should be visible, and any changes made in Microsoft Project will be visible after you click “Save”

Hopefully, this will help you in your first step when looking to troubleshoot why the SharePoint Task List is not appearing as expected within the Microsoft Project file when opened through the browser. This should reconnect SharePoint Task List and allow you to manage your projects in BrightWork and Microsoft Project.