Background
Microsoft
Project Server provides storage and reporting services to the Microsoft Project
Client (MS Project Professional) via the Microsoft Project Server 2013 Queuing
System, or in short, the Project Server Queue. This Queue is a waiting line of
jobs expected to be processed by Project Server.
Jobs such as
Save, Publish or Check- in a Project are sent to this queue to be processed
once there are not any other jobs with higher priority in the queue. Projects
have to be checked out before opening them and making changes. This prevents
other users from opening the project and making changes while the Project is
checked out. If a user views the Project while you have it checked out, he or
she will see the last version that was checked out, not the version being
worked on. Once a Project is checked back in, users can see the changes that
have been made.
Although the
Queue Service adds multiple benefits to the Microsoft Project Server System, it
is not perfect and sometimes jobs are not processed as expected.
Steps to check-in a Project
If
a Project appears to be checked out, there are a few steps to correct this
situation. They are listed in order, from least to most “destructive”.
· Check-in Project via PWA
· Open the project in read
only mode and then close it
· Refresh the list of
available Projects
· Cleaning the local cache
· Recreate the Project
Server Account
Check-in Project via PWA
The first step is to find out if your project is really
checked out. Open Project Web Access by opening Internet Explorer and entering
this URL:
Once PWA opens, click on Project Center.
Once in Project Center select the Project Tab from the Top Menu (Ribbon) and click on Check in my projects.
Once in Project Center select the Project Tab from the Top Menu (Ribbon) and click on Check in my projects.
This will provide you
with a list of projects that are checked out depending on your permissions.
If the project you are trying to open is not listed, continue with the next steps for clearing out the local cache.
If the project you are trying to open is not listed, continue with the next steps for clearing out the local cache.
Refreshing the list of available Projects
To
refresh the list, please open Project Professional and from the main menu
select File - > Open, or
click on the Open option, or simply press Ctrl-O.
This
will open the Open dialog box:
Double-click
on Retrieve the list of projects from Project Server, and that should refresh
the state of your project. If the project still shows up as checked out,
continue to open the project in read only mode.
Open the project in read only
Open
the project in read only mode and then close it. This will resend the check-in
instructions to Microsoft Project. After 20 – 30 seconds, the project should be
correctly checked in.
If
this fails, continue troubleshooting by Cleaning the local Project Cache in
Project Professional.
Cleaning the local Project Cache
Open
Project Professional and from the File menu, select Options-> Save -> Local Project Cache - > Clean Up Cache.
Once
the dialog box opens, please select the project that you are having problems
with:
Note
that the project might show up as checked out.
Once
you have the project selected, please remove it from your local cache by
pressing Remove from Cache:
If
the problem is recurring, the next step is to delete the Project Server
Account and add a new one.
Most common causes
- Presence of blank rows in the middle of the project.
- Assignments to Summary Tasks.