Updating Actual Start/Finish Dates with Excel Merge Breaks all links

[Richard Drane]

I have a WBS that requires weekly status updates on Actual Start Date, Actual Finish Date, and % Complete from maintenance supervisors who do not have access to MS Project. Currently, my planner is entering the data manually (in Project 2013). We attempted to update the data by merging the Excel data file using the UID as the merge key. Whenever the merge is completed, all resources and predecessor/successor allocations/links are gone. I can still see the resource allocations in the Resource Sheet, but cannot link them to the tasks.

All of the documentation I can find anywhere makes the merge update a very simple and straightforward task (I am using an exported MS Project file to test the import and having the same issue). Here are the steps I am taking:

“Open” the .xlsx file
Choose “New Map”
“Merge the data into the active project”
Select “Tasks” only and “Import includes headers”
Using the Unique_ID as the Merge Key and mapping the fields to their original MS Project Fields

I haven’t seen this same issue anywhere else, so my initial thought is that there is something odd about how the project was initially designed. Any help is much appreciated.

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