Forum Discussion
Predecessors
Let's start with some basics. When you say "manually entered start and end dates", what are the field names for those dates? And when you say "auto scheduled start and end dates", what are the field names for those dates?
My guess is you are confusing which dates are which. Project has several date fields (i.e. Start, Actual Start, Scheduled Start, Baseline Start, etc.). The Start field and the Finish field are the "active" scheduling fields that are impacted by task duration and task dependencies (i.e. predecessors).
A screen shot of a few tasks in your Gantt Chart view would help us see what you have. Be sure it includes the Info, ID, Duration, Start, Finish, Predecessor, and Constraint Type fields.
And for reference, you should not be manually entering any dates. Your plan should be auto-scheduled with no constraints. Given that all dates will be determined by Project's scheduling enigine using task durations and task dependencies.
John