Link error between Project files

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    • #407491
      Megan Livingston
      Guest

      Hello – does anyone have any tricks for locating the source of this error: “These tasks can’t be linked because they’re already linked through another task chain”.

      I have verified there are NO links on Summary lines in any of the files.
      There are a total of 11 files that are connected.
      I get this error when I have 2 specific files together in the Master. These two files work with the other 9 files as long as only one of them are not present in the Master at a time.

      Any ideas on how to resolve are MUCH appreciated!

    • #407496
      Larry Christofaro
      Participant

      Megan, I’m may not be much help but maybe there is a circular reference somewhere. Try following and removing links to see what works (and of course don’t same unless you know you found the problem). Good luck…

    • #407501
      Jigs Gaton
      Member

      As always, Larry’s advice is sound. But it sounds like you are using Master / Subprojects, and perhaps you have linked the same file twice as a subproject. I doubt that will work 🙂 Best of luck!

    • #407516
      Daryl Deffler
      Participant

      Megan;
      I agree, you have a circular reference created when you open those two schedules in the master project. The problem is finding it, which isn’t easy. Might I suggest the following approach.
      1) Open one of the two schedules and remove ALL external links, documenting each as you remove them. Then, open both schedules. If the circular reference still appears, none of the links you removed caused it and they can be re-added. Do the same process with the other schedule, removing all external links, documenting them, and re-opening.
      When you can open both schedules with no reference errors, you know one of the removed links caused the issue.
      2) Add the removed links back one at a time. When you add a link and the message reappears, you’ve found the culprit.
      3) Follow the dependency chain to see and analyze the full circular reference. Hopefully, once you see the full circular reference chain, you’ll be able to determine how to fix it. The problem could be the task you are adding the external reference to itself, or it might actually be one of the tasks somewhere in the circular reference chain.

    • #407517
      Larry Christofaro
      Participant

      Megan, Daryl reminded me of the quick fix I couldn’t remember…thanks Daryl. Daryl has the right answer but this might be a bit quicker. Copy the entire predecessors column to another custom field, delete all predecessors, and then copy them back in. If you have a circular reference, the error message will tell you along with the task that is causing it. It might still be a bit of research to work through the circular reference, but that should make your research across multiple projects a bit easier. It’s been a while since I’ve tried this but you might want to open all projects and go through them one at a time. Good luck…

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