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How to Correct an Incorrect Assignment Owner in Project Web App

Nimra Malik Oct 19, 2026 868 views

Question details

A resource is incorrectly designated as the assignment owner for tasks across multiple projects, which prevents the resource from being deleted from the system.

How to Correct an Incorrect Assignment Owner in Project Web App

Product: Project Web App
Device & OS: not provided
Scenario: Attempting to delete or manage a resource in Project Web App but encountering an error because the system still recognizes them as an assignment owner.
Observed behavior: Project Web App blocks the deletion of the resource because it retains assignment owner status on various tasks across different active projects.

Before you start

Ensure you have administrator or project manager permissions in Project Web App to check out projects, edit resource assignments, and publish changes.

Solution 1Recommended

Update the Assignment Owner via Resource Usage View

Manually locate and update the assignment owner for the affected tasks within each individual project to remove the dependency preventing deletion.

Because Project Web App tracks resource dependencies on a per-project basis, this correction must be performed directly within every project where the incorrect assignment exists.

Open and check out the affected project

Launch Project Web App, locate one of the projects containing the incorrect resource, and check it out to enable editing mode.

Switch to Resource Usage view

Navigate to the View tab in the ribbon and select the 'Resource Usage' view to display all resources and their assigned tasks.

Insert the Assignment Owner column

Right-click on the existing column headers, select 'Insert Column', and search for 'Assignment Owner' to temporarily add it to your current view.

Correct the Assignment Owner

Review the task assignments for the affected resource. Click on the Assignment Owner field for those tasks and change the value to the correct resource name.

Save and publish

Save your changes and publish the project to the server. You must repeat these exact steps for every affected project before the system will allow you to delete the original resource.

Update the Assignment Owner via Resource Usage View

Publishing is Required: Simply saving the project is not enough. You must publish the project for the Project Web App server to recognize the updated assignment owners.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Project Web App prevent me from deleting a resource?

Project Web App maintains strict data integrity. If a resource is listed as an Assignment Owner for tasks in any active project, the system will block deletion to prevent orphaned tasks. You must reassign all their tasks before deleting.

Can I bulk update Assignment Owners across all projects at once?

Through the standard Project Web App interface, you cannot bulk update Assignment Owners across multiple projects simultaneously. Each project must be checked out and updated individually.

What happens if I forget to publish the project after changing the owner?

If you save but do not publish the project, the changes only exist in your local or working draft. The Project Web App server will continue to recognize the old assignment owner, and the resource deletion will still be blocked.

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