Import a project

Click Import in the sidebar and pick a file. Ganttastic detects the format for you.

Any other file is refused with "Unsupported file type" and the list of formats above. Nothing is created.

Importing is open to everyone, including guests exploring Ganttastic (see try Ganttastic without an account). The one exception is .mpp conversion, which needs a free account. A guest who picks an .mpp file sees the Save As XML steps straight away, and the file is never uploaded.

A guest’s import becomes a guest project like any other, saved in this browser. When you sign up or sign in, it moves into your account with the rest of your guest work. There are two exceptions, and in both the guest work does not move into the account: signing in to an account that uses two-factor authentication, and a Google or single sign-on sign in to an existing account that continues in the same tab because the browser blocked its popup window.

When there is no project to open, for example on your first visit, the app shows the Start your project panel. Its Import a file row has an Import file button that takes the same files as the sidebar. A Ganttastic backup restores straight away; any other file goes through the steps on this page and creates your first project.

A project with no tasks shows the same panel, headed Add tasks to this project, in the Gantt and List views to anyone who can edit it. An import started there fills that project instead of creating a new one. The file’s tasks and resources go into it, and any resources already set up on the project are replaced. The project keeps its name, even if you type a different one on the review screen, and it keeps its collaborators. A backup restored there also brings its settings and holidays, but not its saved baseline. Because no project is created, this kind of import does not use up a project on your plan.

A .gwise file is a complete snapshot exported by Ganttastic. Import one and it becomes a new project with all tasks, dependencies, resources, and settings preserved, including a saved baseline. Nothing is merged and nothing is overwritten, which makes this the safe way to restore an earlier state or move a project between accounts.

The restored project belongs to you alone. Collaborators on the original project are not carried across, so share it again if others need it. A guest’s restore becomes a guest project in this browser and opens straight away.

If the file cannot be read at all, the message reads "We could not read that file. It does not look like a Ganttastic backup, so nothing was imported." If it can be read but is not a Ganttastic project, the message starts with "Invalid project file format". If the file was fine but saving failed, it reads "We read your file but could not save the project. Please check your connection and try again."

To create these files in the first place, see export your project.

Upload an .xml file saved from Microsoft Project and Ganttastic parses it directly in your browser, then takes you straight to the review screen. No column mapping is needed. The project name is suggested from the title saved in the plan. If the plan has no title, or only Project’s default title such as Project1, the file name is used instead.

Ganttastic reads these parts of the plan:

• Task names, start and finish dates, and percent complete.
• Durations, converted to working days with the plan’s own hours per day and rounded to whole days, with at least one day for any task that is not a milestone.
• Dependencies with their type (finish to start, start to start, finish to finish, or start to finish) and lag. Lag is rounded to whole working days.
• Resources and their task assignments. A resource’s group in Project becomes its role in Ganttastic.
• Task notes.

Calendars, working time and holidays, constraints, deadlines, costs and work, Project baselines, and custom fields are not imported. The project summary row, rows with no name, and Project’s unnamed placeholder resource are skipped. Set your working days and holidays in the new project’s Work Calendar after the import.

Upload a .mpp file and Ganttastic first converts it to the XML format on its servers, then continues exactly as above. You need to be signed in to a free account, files can be up to 25 MB, and each account can convert 20 files an hour. A password protected or damaged .mpp file is refused with a message saying it could not be read. If you are not signed in or the conversion is unavailable, the wizard shows Export to XML first with short instructions: open your plan in Microsoft Project, choose Save As, pick XML Format (*.xml) as the file type, and upload that file. If the upload never gets an answer, the wizard says "Couldn’t reach the conversion service. Please try again."

Microsoft Project for the web does not save .mpp files. Export your plan to Excel from it and import that file as a spreadsheet, as described in the next section.

Two more details are worth knowing. Tasks shorter than half a working day, including those with zero duration, and tasks marked as milestones in Project are imported as milestones. And because Ganttastic supports tasks with one level of sub-tasks, anything nested deeper in your Project plan is flattened under its top level phase, with the intermediate grouping kept in the task name. A warning on the review screen tells you when this has happened.

CSV and Excel files open the Match your columns step. Ganttastic recognizes the default exports of Asana, ClickUp, and Monday.com from their column headers and fills the mapping in for you. For any other spreadsheet it makes a guess from the header names. Adjust anything that looks off, then click Continue.

In a CSV file the first row holds the column headers. From an Excel workbook, Ganttastic reads only the first worksheet. Its header row is the first row, within the first 15, that has two or more filled cells, so a title row above your headers is skipped. A file with no data rows is refused with "No rows were found. Make sure the first row contains your column headers."

Only Task name is required. The other fields you can map are Start date, Due / end date, Duration, % complete, Assignee(s), Dependencies, Group / section, Milestone flag, Notes, Status, and Source ID. Leave a field unmapped if your file has no matching column. Once a task name column is chosen, a preview shows the first rows so you can check the mapping against real data. Rows with an empty task name are left out, and if no row has one, the step says "No tasks were found with the current mapping. Check the Task name column."

• A Group / section value becomes a parent phase, and the rows that share it become its sub-tasks (one level, matching how tasks work in Ganttastic).
• Dependencies are matched to other rows by task name and imported as finish to start links with no lag. References that cannot be matched are skipped with a warning rather than creating broken links. When two rows share a name, links pointing at that name are skipped too, with a separate warning about duplicated names.
• A cell can hold several dependencies or several assignees, separated by commas, semicolons, or line breaks.
• % complete accepts 50%, 50, or 0.5, which all import as 50 percent. A date in that column counts as finished, and a blank cell counts as 0.
• Milestone flag marks a row as a milestone with zero duration when the cell says y, yes, true, 1, x, done, complete, or completed.
• Assignee(s) become Internal resources on the new project, one per person. The same name in different capitals counts as one person.
• Duration is read as working days and rounded to whole days. Only the number in the cell is read, so write durations in days: "2 weeks" imports as 2 days. When a row has no duration, Ganttastic counts the Monday to Friday days from its start to its due date. A row with a due date but no start ends on its due date and runs for its duration, or one working day. A row with no dates at all starts on the project’s start date.

Every wizard import ends at the Review imported plan screen. At this point nothing has been created in your account yet.

1. Rename the project if you want. The field starts with a name suggested by the file. An import into an empty project from its own panel keeps that project’s name instead.
2. Read any warnings shown at the top, for example dependency references that were skipped.
3. Check each row. It shows the dates Ganttastic read from the file with the month written out, for example 03 Apr 2026 to 10 Apr 2026, so a day and month read the wrong way round is easy to spot. Rows are also labeled Phase, Milestone, or with a duration such as 5d.
4. Untick any tasks you do not want to bring across. Unticking a phase also unticks its sub-tasks, and milestones are marked with a diamond. A counter at the bottom shows how many tasks are selected, for example "12 of 15 tasks selected in 3 phases".
5. Click the import button, which shows the count, for example "Import 12 tasks". Phases are not counted.

A sub-task you keep brings its phase with it, even if you unticked the phase. A dependency on a task you unticked is dropped. For spreadsheets, Back returns you to the Match your columns step.

A "Project imported" toast confirms the new project, and it opens like any other project in your sidebar. It starts on the earliest start date among the tasks you kept, and its phases open expanded. Dependencies then take effect: a task whose predecessor finishes later moves later, as described in how automatic scheduling works. From there, continue as you would with any plan: see your first project.

If creating the project takes more than 20 seconds, the review screen says the import is taking longer than expected and that your connection may have dropped. Check the sidebar before you try again: if the project is already there, close the dialog and reload the page rather than importing a second copy.

An import creates a normal project through the same path as creating one by hand, so it counts against the active project limit on your plan. If you are already at the limit, clicking Import in the sidebar shows a "Project Limit Reached" message and the file picker does not open. If you reach the limit while the sidebar’s import wizard is open, the import button on the review screen is disabled and a message explains that you have reached your active project limit. From the Start your project panel, the same message appears when you click the import button. An import into an empty project from its own panel creates no project, so it is not limited.

To make room, complete or delete a project you no longer need, or move up a tier. Limits for each plan are listed in plans and pricing.