Project permissions
- Skip Ahead to
- Private projects
- Public projects
- Request access to a private project
- Accept or deny requests to add members to a project
- Comment-only projects
- Change permission settings for individual project members
- Individual user project permissions
Access to a project in Asana is contextual and there are a variety of situations that affect who can access a project and its tasks.
If somebody has access to a project, then they have access to all tasks and conversations within that project.
| Project: | Accessible by: |
|---|---|
| Private project | Project members |
| Public project in request or private team | Team and project members |
| Public project in public team | Organization, team, and project members |
In this article, we'll explain:
- How to identify a project's permissions
- Who can see a project
- How to share a project
- How to limit access to a project
Private projects
Identifying a private project:
A private project will show Private to project members in the project header.
If a project is private to only you, the project header will show Private to you instead.
Who can see a private project?
Project members can see a private project. Only people who are invited to the project can find it.
How do I share a private project?
- Click the share button in project view
- A pop up window will give you the opportunity to invite a member with a link
- Add a project member by name or email
How to make a private project public:
Click the Make public to [Team Name] in the bottom right corner of the Share screen.
Changing a project to public will make the project accessible to all members of the team in which the project exist in.
How do I limit access to a private project?
You can manage all notifications from this share pop up window.
You can determine if project members can edit, or can only add comments. You can also change the owner of the project or remove a member from the project.
How to give members access to a project or remove a member from a project:
- Across from each member’s name there is a drop-down menu with 4 options
- From this drop-down menu you can give members certain rights by choosing one of the options
When you remove a project member from a private project they'll no longer be able to access that project's tasks and conversations.
How to manage notifications
You can manage all notifications from this share pop-up window.
Across from Project members click on Manage notifications in the share pop-up.
Next a Member notifications settings pop-up will provide you with a box to opt-in for status updates, conversations and tasks notifications added in Asana for each project member.
Public projects
Identifying a public project:
A public project will show Shared with [team name] in the project header.
Who can see a public project?
A public project can be accessed by:
- Project members
- All team members**
In public teams, organization members that are not part of the team can also see public projects within the team. Check your team's permissions to see whether or not other organization members can see this public project.
How do I share a public project?
Sharing a public project:
- Add someone as a project member- if this person already belongs to the team in which that project exists, they will already have access to that project. Adding an existing team member to a public project means they will receive project notifications.
- Add someone as a team member - adding someone as a team member will give that person access to all other public projects within that team.
How do I limit access to a public project?
To limit access to a public project:
- Remove project members - if someone is also a member of the team in which the project exists, they will still have access to the project.
- Change to a private project - changing to a private project means only project members will be able to access that project. Team Members will no longer be able to access that project.
Remove project members:
- Click the + sign then select Member notification settings.
- In the next window, hover over the person you want to remove and select Remove.
Change to a private project:
Click the + sign then select Make private.
Request access to a private project
You can reach out to the owner of a private project to request access as follows:
- When trying to access a private project you will land on a page stating that you do not have access.
- Click on the Request access button to request access from the project owner.
- The project owner will be notified that you have requested access to that project.
It is not possible to request access to comment only projects.
Accept or deny requests to add members to a project
People that don’t have access to a private project have the possibility to request access to it. For them to access that project, it is necessary that their request is accepted first.
- When someone requests access to a private project, the project owner will be assigned a task to notify them that a person has asked for access. The project owner can then add them to the project to provide them access.
- If there is no owner assigned to that project, the task to provide or deny access will be assigned to the project creator.
- If there is no owner assigned to that project and the project creator does not have edit access, the first member of the project with edit access will receive the request and can accept or deny access to the project.
Comment-only projects
Comment-only permissions for projects allow users to view or comment on projects without giving them access to edit them. This makes it easier to share the information in a project with anyone that needs it, while preventing any accidental or unnecessary changes. Capture feedback on projects and update stakeholders, while keeping the structure of your projects intact. Comment-only permissions are perfect for company wikis, templates, points of reference and processes that have been solidified and shouldn’t be changed.
Change a project to comment-only
You can access permission settings through the Share button on the project page.
Only project members who have editing permissions can modify a comment-only project. Those who are not project members may still have access to the project as a whole or to any of the individual tasks within it, but will only be able to access the project with comment-only permissions.
To change the permission settings of the project to comment-only:
- Navigate to the Share button beside the search bar in your project to open the project members & permission settings menu
- Choose which project member you want to restrict to comment-only and select Can comment from the menu
From here you can choose to share a project with the team or make it private to project members, and restrict what these members can do within it.
Once you change this setting, your public project will be comment-only for people who are in your team, division, or organization, but not those who are project members. Making this change will not affect the project access settings for existing project members.
Change permission settings for individual project members
The project owner and project members with editing permissions can give other project members editing access by changing their individual permission settings to Can edit.
To change a project member's permission settings:
- Click on the dropdown menu beside the name of the project member you are changing the settings for
- Select Can edit to give them full project permissions, or Can comment to limit permissions to comment-only
- The project owner can assign project ownership to another project member
- Close the menu to save your changes
Project members will see what permissions they have in the task view over the project name in a banner.
Individual user project permissions
Project members can be given individual permissions regardless of the project's default setting. On the project level, members with comment-only permissions or members who are assigned a task with comment-only permissions, can only post project messages and project status updates.
The table below outlines the capabilities of project members with editing permissions, those with comment-only access and those with comment-only access who have also been assigned a task in that project.
| Can edit: | Can comment: | Can comment with task assigned: |
|---|---|---|
| Complete tasks | Complete tasks | |
| Change assignee | Change assignee | |
| Change due date | Change due date | |
| Modify task title and description | ||
| Add/remove tags | ||
| Add/modify subtasks | ||
| Add/modify task dependencies | ||
| Edit/view forms | ||
| Modify custom field values | Modify custom field values | |
| Add/remove attachments | Add/remove attachments | Add/remove attachments |
| Comment on a task | Comment on a task | Comment on a task |
| Modify task collaborators | Modify task collaborators | Modify task collaborators |
| Like tasks or comments | Like tasks or comments | Like tasks or comments |
If you have comment-only access and are assigned a task, subtasks of that task must also be assigned to you in order to be able to action them. In this case, you would have comment-only access to the subtasks.
Tasks associated with multiple projects
If a task is multi-homed, project members who have access to every project the task lives in will inherit the greatest permissions.
For example, anyone who has full editing access to a task in one project, will not lose that access if the task is multi-homed to another project in which they have comment-only access. This means you won't lose editing privileges on tasks if they are multi-homed into projects you have comment-only access to.
This also means that anyone with comment-only permissions in one project will gain the ability to edit a task that is multi-homed into another project in which they have Can edit permissions.
