Need help opening a Teams Project in Desktop App

[Tony_Platts]

Hi there,

My company uses Microsoft Teams and there are a small number of us in the business with MS Project licences. We manage the projects for the other areas of the business and we give our clients access to a shared teams site for the purpose of communication and document sharing.

I have created a Project in the teams site by means of 

Adding a new tab

Selecting the project app

Naming it.

For the sake of this example, let's call it "Teams_Project".

Now I would like to update that project using the desktop client.  Advertising literature seems to suggest it's possible but I cannot see how.

If I go to https://project.microsoft.com/en-GB/ I can see Teams_Project. I can update it in Project for the Web. I can also see from this page that my default PWA site is  https://companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/pwa (companyname is the correct SharePoint URL for my company)

I have gone to the desktop app and, in the info section, added a new project web app account that matches the site url above. In the first instance I received an error message that it couldn't connect. So I went along to the URL and found I needed permissions. Our admin allowed me full control and I can now access the site using the desktop app. 

However, I cannot see Teams_Project.  I've run a test, and saved a file called "Desktop_Project". I can see this when I go to https://project.microsoft.com/en-GB/  but not when I go to https://companyname.sharepoint.com/sites/pwa

If I try to add a new project tab in teams, I can only add Teams_Project or create a new team.

What do I need to do to get them talking to each other? Is there something painfully obvious Im missing or can anyone point me towards a guide that might help? 

This is one of the most complicated setup processses. I really think there should just be an option in Teams to "Open in Desktop App" like all other MS Office files.

[#2 · Accepted solution]

Tony --

There is no connection whatsoever between the Project for the Web application and the Project Online application, which includes the Microsoft Project desktop application. Project for the Web and Project Online are two separate project management applications and there is no integration between them. So, what you are trying to do is not possible. Sorry, but hope this helps.

[#3]

@Dale Howard 

This is pretty awful news and a major flaw. I've got a team of people all using MS Project on a daily basis and they are telling me that Project Online doesn't replicate the functionality of the application. As a result, they do not want to move to it.

Honestly, at this point this is a real showstopper for us. 

[#4]

Do you know if there is any roadmap to change this? I've just tried to create a project using Project Online and it's absolutely awful. It's taken me about 45 minutes to add it in because there's not even a way to copy and paste it in from an excel spreadsheet.

I can't believe that this is the way that MS wants us to work.

[#5]

Wow, I would consider that a very large mistake. By comparison, MSExcel, MsWord, MSPowerPoint, is exactly the same. Of course it does have less resources, but the file is the same and the user can open and edit everywhere.

[#6]

Tony --

Minor correction: The application you are calling Project Online is actually the new Project for the Web application. And you are correct that it does not replicate the functionality found in the Microsoft Project desktop application. For your own knowledge, please be aware that the Microsoft development team has already stated that Project for the Web WILL NOT replicate the features and functionality of the Microsoft Project desktop application. Project for the Web is intended to be a simple project management tool, designed for small and simple projects.

If you are not finding the functionality you want in Project for the Web, then I would recommend that you NOT attempt to use it, and to stick with Microsoft Project instead. And if you are wanting an enterprise project management application, I would encourage you to consider either Project Online or Microsoft Project Server, both of which are full-featured PPM tools. With either of these applications, you would be able to continue using the Microsoft Project desktop application. You would need the Professional version of Microsoft Project to connect to either Project Online or Project Server. Hope this helps.

[#7]

I am not Tony, but I am following the post cause I have great interest with this for project management. Here, in our enterprise (I am not the owner), we bought MSProject Professional (wich I recommended) and type 1 licence and type 3 licence. When I bought, I did not hope that members of the project could edit the project by MSTeams, but I had a real expectation that the tasks could be checked done and inserted the real dates (start and finish), by MSPlanner, or by MSTeams, once I had great experience with them. It was a disappointment that I can connect 1 TASK of MSProject, with a whole PLAN on MSPlanner, it is not smart to me to have distinct sizes of tasks on each Software. If it only link one task, by one task, the synchronization with MSteams can be ignored, once the members can control tasks by MSPlanner, cause with that update the project manager can publish the reports without inserting the status directly on the Project. Come to think of it, It is a suggestion, full synchronisation beteween MSPlanner and MSProject.

[#8]

Sorry to linger on this topic that has already been answered, but I am still a little confused and frustrated.
So am I to understand that Microsoft Teams uses "Project For The Web", and there is no way to open these projects in the desktop version for reporting or printing? I know that you can export to PDF or excel, but that is extremely limited and inconvenient.

[#9]

Robert --

Yes, you are correct. Sorry, but hope this helps.