Managing Project Privacy & Permissions in Asana

This guide explains how to configure default project privacy and access permissions for your organization in Asana. These settings help maintain consistency and control over who can view, edit, or share projects across your teams.

Who Should Use This SOP

Asana Super Admins
IT or Operations Managers managing organizational-level Asana setup

What You’ll Need

Access to the Asana Admin Console
An active Starter, Advanced, or Enterprise Asana plan
A supported web browser or the desktop app
Project Privacy Settings – Asana Help
Converting Tasks into Projects – Asana Help

How to Set Up Default Project Settings

1. Access the Admin Console

Click your profile icon in the top-right corner of Asana
Select Admin Console (available only if you’re a Super Admin)
In the left-hand menu, click Security
Scroll to the Project settings section

2. Configure Organization-Wide Sharing Controls

Choose who can share projects with the broader organization:

Anyone at [Your Org Name] – All users can share projects with the org
No one at [Your Org Name] – Sharing is completely restricted

3. Set Default Project Privacy for New Projects

Choose what visibility level new projects should have by default:

Organization – Visible to everyone in your org
Team only – Visible only to the team the project lives in
Private to members – Visible only to invited project collaborators

4. Choose Default Access Level for Task Collaborators

Decide how much access collaborators should have by default:

Project admin – Full access to settings and edits
Editor – Can add/edit/delete anything in the project
Commenter – Can comment but not edit
Viewer – Can only view

5. Project Management Permissions

Set who can update project members and edit workflows:

Project admins and editors OR
Only project admins

Manually Adjusting Existing Projects

Default settings only apply to new projects. For existing ones:

Open the project
Click the Share button in the top-right corner
Manually adjust privacy and permission settings as needed
Learn more: Project Privacy Settings – Asana Help

Important Exception: Task-to-Project Conversions

When converting a task into a project via an Asana Rule (usually used in automation), the new project inherits the permissions of the original task, not the admin default settings.

Here’s how it behaves:

If the task is public, the new project becomes Team only
If the task is private, the new project becomes Private to members
Task collaborators are not automatically added to the new project
The project is created in the same team as the original task

Review the full behavior here:
👉 Converting Tasks into Projects – Asana Help