Forum Discussion
Planner Integration with Loop Tasks
Need some guidance - We are starting to use Planner to keep track of a large number of tasks. Currently planner is setup with:
Approx 10 buckets (in kanban view), and a list of tasks below each. We are using this mainly just for tasks, so the Timeline view isn't needed. We want to connect tasks recorded in Teams meetings, and in Loop to our main Planner. Whats the best work around for this?
When using Loop, and we create a task and we connect it to Planner, it will create a new Plan and put the tasks under that. To me, this is dysfunctional, because we want all tasks to be under the main Plan in Planner. I like to use the GRID view of the Plan, which enables me to make subtasks under the main tasks, but others prefer to use the kanban view. However you can't see the subtasks that are under the "main task" like in Grid view.
There's lots of videos showing how these parts of Teams work together, but in reality, it doesn't really work that well when it scatters tasks created in different parts to different Planners.
Any suggestions would be helpful, and thank you in advance for your help.
Jim
5 Replies
Hi Jim,
You’re not alone in running into this, the current Loop + Planner integration is great for capturing tasks quickly, but it’s not designed yet for a “single master plan with everything in it,” which is what you’re aiming for.
A key detail is that Loop task lists and Collaborative meeting notes create their own Planner plans automatically. When you add a Loop task list in a meeting or Loop page and it syncs to Planner, Microsoft creates a separate “lightweight” plan for that task list and keeps them in sync. There’s no setting today to say “send these tasks to my existing main plan instead”.
That’s why you’re seeing tasks scattered into different plans instead of all landing in your 10-bucket master board. It’s frustrating, but at the moment it’s by design, and Microsoft hasn’t announced anything on the public docs/roadmap that would let you point Loop tasks straight at an existing plan.
For now, the realistic options are workarounds:
- Use your main Planner plan directly in Loop (where possible)
- In “regular” Loop pages (not meeting notes), instead of inserting a Task list, use the Planner component and connect it to your existing plan. Tasks created there go straight into that plan, so everyone can still work in Loop but you keep a single board.
- This works well for ongoing project spaces where you want to keep using the Grid view (for subtasks) but still capture tasks in Loop.
- Treat meeting/Loop task lists as an “inbox” and move tasks into the main plan
- From the meeting notes or Loop task list, click Open in Planner and move or copy the tasks into your main plan/buckets. Just be aware: if you move a task out of the auto-created plan into another plan, it’s removed from the meeting notes view (the task still exists in Planner, just not in the notes).
- Some teams keep those meeting-specific plans as “capture boards” and only move the tasks that really matter into the central plan.
- Automate consolidation with Power Automate
- You can build a flow that triggers when a task is created in the auto-generated Loop plans and then creates a matching task in your main plan (optionally tagging it with the meeting name or source).
- It’s not as clean as being able to choose the plan up-front, but once configured it prevents tasks from spreading across lots of separate boards.
On your second point: today, subtasks are best managed from the Grid view in the new Planner, the Kanban board still focuses on the “main” task card, so you don’t see the full hierarchy in the same way you do in Grid. That’s a current limitation of how sub-tasks/summary tasks are surfaced across views.
If you’re exploring these features for a larger rollout, we share a lot of practical examples of Planner and Loop in real project scenarios on our MLPro YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@MLProPPM
This is NOT a good experience. I'm trying out using the notes section during meetings. I like the functionality, but having these then create a separate Plan in Planner makes this NOT efficient. MS has done a good job overall with making the M365 environment work "better together" but some of these are BIG disconnects. Do you know if there is anything on the road map to make these sync better?
As of now, Microsoft hasn’t announced any update that would let Loop tasks connect directly to an existing Planner plan. Every time you create tasks in Loop, it still spins up a new plan automatically, which makes things messy if you’re trying to manage everything in one central board. There’s nothing on the current Microsoft 365 roadmap confirming a fix for this yet, though they’ve been slowly improving how Planner, Loop, and Teams work together. For now, the best option is still to use Power Automate to copy or move new tasks into your main Planner plan. It’s definitely not ideal, but hopefully Microsoft will make this smoother soon.
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Don't forget to mark as solution if my answer suits youWhat is the flow you built to move them for you?
When you create tasks in Loop and connect them to Planner, Microsoft automatically generates a new plan instead of letting you link those tasks to an existing one, which can make things messy if you’re managing everything in a central Planner board. Unfortunately, there’s no native way to change this behavior right now. A good workaround is to use Power Automate: you can set up a flow that automatically moves or copies new tasks from the auto-created plans into your main Planner. It takes a bit of setup, but once running, it keeps everything organized in one place. Hopefully, Microsoft improves the Loop–Planner connection soon so tasks can be added directly to an existing plan.
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Don't forget to mark as solution if my answer suits you
