MSP error: "Duplicate task ID found..." when saving a project back to Clarity

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to save a Microsoft Project (MSP) project back to Clarity, receive error: 

Duplicate task ID [Project Manager] found. Cannot continue save.

Note: You may see this error multiple times on the save back to Clarity when clicking OK.

Cause

This error is due to duplicate data being stored in Text1 which is mapped to the Task ID field in Clarity. The values in this field must be unique in the project.

In 15.7 and lower versions, one reason this can happen is if tasks are copied and pasted using the task highlight feature. This copies over all column data whether visible in the task view or not. 

Resolution

To resolve these errors, delete or replace any duplicate data from Text1.

1. In MSP from a Task or Gantt view, add the Text1 column to the view
2. Make sure that the WBS task list is expanded in MSP to show all tasks
3. Replace or remove any duplicate data found in Text1

Notes:

• This error will no longer happen in the case of copying and pasting tasks starting in 15.7.1 and higher. However, the error can still happen if you manually type a duplicate task ID into text1 (or manually copy that particular field into another text1 field for a task)
• If the data being replaced is not Task ID related data that is being maintained in the project, the values can be moved to another Text field not currently in use for mapping (Text1, Text2, and Text3 are PPM reserved fields used in mapping).
• Also ensure the character length of the Task IDs are less then or equal to 16 characters or another error can occur. See MSP Error: "Invalid Name for field prexternal ID" for more details on this issue.

Additional Information