Erroneous Circular Relationship Error Message

Question

MS Project 2007 is giving an incorrect error:  "This outline change would create a circular relationship. Indenting these tasks would create an illogical relationship with other tasks.  Check the task dependencies for the tasks from which you are indenting and then try again."

This message is erroneous in that there are NO dependencies in the tasks in question and there are NO dependencies on them.  How can I get rid of this error and make Project do the indentations?

Answer 1

To check if the schedule has circular dependecies, insert Successors Column alongside Predecessors, now check for any Circular link i.e

T1 is predecessor for T2 which is predecessor to T3 and now when you try to set T3 as predecessor to T1 MSP throws Circular error, so check for it by comparing both columns. This can happen at task level and Summary Level also if you have linked a Summary task in a manner that it is pointing to something that is in Circular relation then even if you have non-linked task beneath it (i.e. under that Summary) then it will throw this error.

So do check it. 

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Sapna S

Answer 2

Thanks Sapna.  I'm checking with the successor column open.  However, I don't understand your last sentence.  Please clarify.

Answer 3

Say if there is Summary Task 1 and it have 3 sub tasks, and out of 3 tasks 1 task doesn't have any Predecessor yet if Summary Task 1 is falling under circular scenario then it does impact this unlinked task also. That I basically mentioned as you said you have a Task that is not linked to any, so assuming that perhaps its Summary Task is causing circular linkage, I mentioned it.

Unlink all the summary tasks: this will resolve the issue. This happens when you create a circular link by moving tasks (indent or outdent) into linked summary tasks. It is therefore recomended not to link summary tasks.

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Sapna S

Answer 4

Thanks for clarifying.

Somehow, simply opening the predecessor column seems to have eliminated the error (there were no conflicting predecessors).

Answer 5

I had a similar problem and nothing said here made any difference. In the end, instead of indenting the task, I "outdented" it. This meant that all the tasks below it were indented underneath. I then outdented those and then indented the whole lot giving me the set up I wanted and I received no error. If doing it the expected way gives an error and doing it this way gives no error, then there must be a bug in the program.

E.g.

This is what I had;

Task 0

    -Task 1

        --Task 2

            ---Task 3

    -Task 4

    -Task 5

    -Task 6

This is what I wanted;

Task 0

    -Task 1

        --Task 2

            ---Task 3

        --Task 4

            ---Task 5

    -Task 6

Step 1 - outdent Task 4

Task 0

    -Task 1

        --Task 2

            ---Task 3

Task 4

   -Task 5

    -Task 6

Step 2 - outdent Task 6

Task 0

    -Task 1

        --Task 2

            ---Task 3

Task 4

   -Task 5

Task 6

Step 2 - indent Tasks 4 and 5

Task 0

    -Task 1

        --Task 2

            ---Task 3

    -Task 4

       --Task 5

Task 6

Step 3 - indent Tasks 4, 5, and 6

Task 0

    -Task 1

        --Task 2

            ---Task 3

        --Task 4

            ---Task 5

    -Task 6

Hope it helps

Answer 6

It is almost certainly not a false error.You probably have predecessors and/or successors on the summaries. This is a common mistake and almost guaranteed to produce circular references.

Answer 7

restart Microsoft Project 

I have encountered this error multiple times at my workplace. I did all that is possible, but no luck. 

The issue is probably a bug. Was using Microsoft Project 2013

Answer 8

Hi,

No Bug, be assured.

Eliminate all links to/from summary tasks and the error goes away.

Greetings,

Answer 9

There is a bug in Project affecting this.  I have experienced this just now.  I deleted ALL predecessors and successors and it still would not indent/outdent. I closed Project and Re-opened project and it worked fine.

Answer 10

Without seeing your file I am reluctant to contradict you.

However, if I could see your file I would insert the successors column alongside the predecessors column, to the right, and then I would scan down the entire list, looking especially for summaries which have either predecessor or successor not blank, which is the most common cause of circular references.

Or I would make a filter which looks for summaries which have either predecessor or successor not blank.

I would bet $2 there is still one there.

Answer 11

Have just had the same issue with MS Project 13 - circular reference error when trying to indent a task at level 1 without any predecessors or successors for either of the two tasks (at level 1).  Closed project and when I re-opened it pointed me to a different line which had the circular reference issue which had not previously shown as an error!  Addressed the circular reference error and was then able to indent the task that was not linked in any way to the previous group of tasks.  Sounds like a feature to me.... :o)

Answer 12

Like others here, I ran into this problem. It was obviously an invalid error message. Restarting MS Project solved the problem.

Answer 13

Not necessarily. Be warned. Sometimes the message comes up and then if you close/open MSP the message does not pop up, so it appears that that the message was erroneous and there was no circular reference.

However, the absence of the message does not guarantee that there is no circular reference. It could still be in there but just not triggering the error message until MSP has to re-calculate the schedule.

It is not wise to conclude "It was obviously an invalid error message". Better to assume it was correct and trying to tell you something, and check.

Answer 14

Seems like a bug. Having the same issue. Couldn't do anything even when I deleted the whole project and started over. Closed MSP and started over and it works fine. Same file.

Answer 15

Same here with project 2013 and 2016. Too many items in list simply breaks the file. Workaround: copy & paste into a text file, then create new file and paste. Reproduction: enter about 40 tasks, indent randomly, and break the waterfall with some wrongly placed predecessors. Undo never restores the file. Please fix, it's very time consuming to fix. At least point the user to the supposedly circular reference...

Answer 16

This is a bug. I had identical symptoms today.  Added the Predecessor/Successor columns, nothing there.  Closed the project, re-opened it (yes, I was reading down the list of solutions posted here) and now I can indent the same tasks without an "error."  The only thing that changed was closing and reopening the project.

Microsoft "experts," while you're correct in citing how circular predecessor/successor relationships can also produce this pop-up, the many reports here including mine confirm that under some circumstances THIS IS A BUG (unless you're also of the belief that every few minutes one must close and reopen the same project to continue working on it).

Microsoft Project Professional 2013, fully patched, still buggy after six (6) years.  But hey, let's all go back to the command line.

Answer 17

I think that you are too quick to declare a bug.

My money is on the circular reference. It's in there somewhere.

Sometimes a file with a circular reference in it will open and will appear to run ok for a while until it hits the circular reference and then throws up the error.

The most common cause of circular references is summaries with predecessors and/or successors.

Check for those first and remove them.

Answer 18

Mailmon,

I tend to agree with Trevor in that Project does not have a "bug" with regard to the circular relationship error message. However, neither Trevor nor I have Project 2013 so it's not something we can directly check. I've never experienced a circular relationship error that wasn't a real error in any previous versions of Project up through Project 2010. Project 2010 shares the same file format structure as Project 2013 and Project 2016 so if there is a functional issue with the basic Project format, it shows up in any of the versions using the current file format.

That said, let me offer a couple other possibilities beyond the "links on summary lines" cause.

Project will only detect a potential circular relationship when a re-calculation is triggered. If auto-calculate is off, the problem can become manifest and not be detected, at least not immediately.

Users can inadvertently create circular relationships by indenting/outdenting a "normal" (i.e. not summary) line that has links. Again, this doesn't always immediately trigger the error message.

If a user creates a hammock task, or other structure, that requires paste links, file corruption can occur. Likewise if the file is, (or was), part of a linked structure (master/subproject or resource pool/sharer), link fragments can be created if file structure maintenance is not pristine. Corruption can be manifest in multiple ways, including real or faux circular relationships. Simply closing and opening a file may appear to correct some corruption issues. Normally saving a suspect file to XML and then re-opening in Project will clear corruption, but not always. Other methods are described in the following Wiki article:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/32054.ms-project-clearing-file-corruption-andor-bloat.aspx

Hope this helps.

John

Answer 19

Hi,

No Bug, be assured.

Eliminate all links to/from summary tasks and the error goes away.

Greetings,

If it's not a bug then it must be a feature....  but its pretty weird that, by closing Project and re-opening, the error message goes away without any other changes to predecessors and successors.

Answer 20

It is a bug. I've encountered this many times over multiple plans and either fix it with a restart of Project or outdenting the problem task and then outdenting the tasks beneath to release it as a parent task, and then I can indent the problem task as first attempted. This is not a case of 'you've left a predecessor/successor', when closing and reopening something makes an error go away, it's a bug.

I do have a theory (forgive my layman's explanation); I think that simply deleting a predecessor/successor doesn't actually update the underlying data (i.e. the background process in Project that maps the task relationships out) until the task is 're-read' by Project, which is forced by outdenting or a simple restart of the application (and perhaps a few other unexplored-by-me workarounds). So, despite deleting the predecessor, Project still regards it as being there until something else happens to the task that forces it to reassess the relationships between tasks.

I have found inconsistencies with this though, in that I have had the error for a circular reference, deleted the predecessor and it just worked, whereas other time it doesn't. I think the number of indented tasks, as another posted has mentioned, is a factor here too. One tell-tale sign is that when there is a genuine issue, it will often cite the task number where the conflict is, whereas when the bug arises, it does not indicate where the task that causes the issue is.

Answer 21

Thanks cheggg. Restarting worked for me. Once I closed and restarted Project, I could indent/outdent as expected.

Answer 22

MSProject 2016 still has this bug/feature. Thankfully I found this thread, was going crazy and about to throw my PC across the room. ALL predecessors and successors were removed and I couldn't get it to indent. Closed/Opened MS Project and voila, it works like it should. 

Answer 23

Agree, same worked with me. Looks like a bug for sure.