Circular Reference Problem

[timpatmc]

I have a project plan with over 1000 lines (that I inherited) and whenever I open it up, I get the following message - "No calculations can be performed. There is a circular relationship in task 729 Bug fix testing of 'Rainier Phase 1'. The successors of this task refer back to this task or its predecessors, causing a circular reference. To remove the link that is causing the circular reference, select the two tasks that are causing the circular link, and then click Unlink Tasks on the Task tab."I have looked at task 729 and see nothing wrong. I don't even know where to find "Rainier Phase 1".

So here are my questions:

How do I find if there is any other task in the project plan pointing to task 729 (I used Find and found nothing). I need to get rid of this circular link because it is causing the plan to not calculate any % complete as I update it, and it is not letting me add tasks and indent/outdent them without giving me another error message that tells me if I do that it will create a circular relationship (which it won't).

So my plan is stuck in the water. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Tim

[Dwayne Johnson]

As far as i know those circular reference almost occupies links to or from summary tasks. Hence it becomes much faster to remove these links (maybe one by one) and if necessary re-insert them till you get the message "No calculations can be performed right now" Also, the indication that "there is a circular relationship INVOLVING task 729" is generally not helpful at all.

[ddegard]

One method that has work well for me is to copy all information in the predecessor and successor column and paste into excel. The remove all the predecessor and successor entries and paste them back in. You will receive an error on the task that is causing the circular reference as soon as it tries to put the predecessor and successor links back in.