Resolve a Corrupted Enterprise Project

Background

Over time, enterprise projects can become corrupted in either Project Online or Project Server. Although no one knows every cause of project corruption, one of the primary causes has been the process of cutting/copying and pasting entire task rows in the Microsoft Project schedule.

How do we know when a project has become corrupted? The one sure sign of corruption is unusual behavior in the project that does not match the expected behavior. For example, when you attempt to publish the project, but nothing happens and the project does not publish, the project is probably corrupted.

Although I have blogged about this topic in the distant past, I was reminded of the topic again when I answered a user question about it in the Project Server General Questions and Answers user forum. Because of that experience, I thought it would be a good idea to blog once again about how to resolve a corrupted enterprise project.

Solution

To resolve a corrupted enterprise project in a Project Server or Project Online environment, you will need to use the Save for Sharing feature. You must first complete the following steps in Microsoft Project Professional to add the Save for Sharing button to your Quick Access Toolbar:

1. Launch Microsoft Project Professional and connect to Project Server or Project Online.
2. Click File > Options > Quick Access Toolbar.
3. In the upper left corner of the Project Options dialog, click the Choose Commands From pick list and select the All Commands item on the list.
4. In the list of available commands, select the Save for Sharing command and then click the Add button to add it to the list of commands on the right, such as shown in Figure 1.

   Figure 1: Add the Save for Sharing command to the QAT

5. Click the OK button to close the Project Options dialog.

After adding the Save for Sharing button to your Quick Access Toolbar, complete the following steps to resolve the corrupted project:

1. Open the corrupted enterprise project and check it out for editing.
2. In the Quick Access Toolbar, click the Save for Sharing button.
3. In the Save As dialog, select a local drive and folder location, such as your computer Desktop.
4. In the Save As dialog, leave the original name of the project, and then click the Save button, such as shown in Figure 2. This action will save the enterprise project as a special type of MPP file.
   

   Figure 2: Save As dialog

5. Click File > Close to close the MPP file project.
6. Click File > Open and then open the MPP file project again.
7. Click File > Save As, select your Project Server or Project Online instance, and then click the Save button.
8. In the Save to Project Web App dialog, click the Save button, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Save to Project Web App dialog

Notice in Figure 3 how Microsoft Project maintains the original name of the enterprise project. When you use the Save for Sharing feature, this process will usually resolve any corruption that might be present in your enterprise project.