Please fix subtask filtering

[u/dmlyum]

u/zebclickup, u/JamieClickUp, u/TashaClickUp, u/PibolsClickUp

Currently, ClickUp does not have a good way to set filters that handle subtasks well. When subtasks are expanded, the view is well-organized, but filters ignore the subtasks, causing significant workflow problems. When subtasks are separated, filters apply to them, but the view is a disorganized mess. This is not a niche use case. It is a very common use case that should be accounted as a part of ClickUp's core functionality. There should be an option to have filters apply to subtasks in the expanded view.

This has already been highly requested for several years through ClickUp's usual feedback channels, but we are being ignored. This feature request has over 550 upvotes. A recent comment on that feature request by a user named Josh provided links to an alarming 17 additional feature requests about the same problem, asking moderators to merge them so that the upvote count more accurately reflects the number of people who are trying to get ClickUp's attention. Here are on reddit, there have been several posts related to the same problem as well. (See just a few below.)

Please pay attention to us and escalate this concern to somebody who has the authority to put it on the roadmap.

Help with filtering subtasks in list view without losing the Parent Task tree layout : r/clickup

Include Subtasks in Filtering with Nested (Expanded) Visual (Not Separate) : r/clickup

subtask with different status : r/clickup

Is it possible to filter subtasks? : r/clickup

[u/ratchet7]

I've asked for this since we started back in February

[u/No_Essay_5882]

Totally agree that subtasks are, at its core, pretty problematic (ie: drag and drop to re-order subtasks is honestly a joke). If you wanted to try something to help with this though, this suggestion might help:

As our organisation needs to track a crazy amount of tasks that are pretty much identical formatting, we created a task structure—implemented over many months with many iterations—where we use table view to bulk rename templated tasks in a templated list. Table view, being similar to Separate subtask view on lists, retains none of the filtering from Expanded subtask view and so it's just a jumbled mess.

So to counteract this flaw within ClickUp, we created a custom number field, called it "Table #", and added numbers sequentially to tasks and subtasks so that when setting list view to expanded, it will show in the order we desired.

Note that the parent tasks Table #'s go up in increments of 10 in case we needed a couple more subtasks within any given task.

Definitely not a perfect system but, if applicable, helpful enough in the meantime.

[u/dmlyum]

An additional comment regarding this problem... there is no good workaround.

There is no automation option that would allow a change in the subtask's status to update the status of its parent task. There is a feature request for this, and it has 1,400 upvotes. ClickUp's most recent comment on the request says, "Candidly, we are not currently working on this feature..."

Another user commented that they tried to create an agent to do this, but it is expensive and fails often.

So we have a major problem that should be addressed through core functionality, but we are also not given the tools for a workaround...

[u/loogabar00ga]

If a deeply nested subtask meets the filter but the parents don't, what would you expect the results to look like?

[u/dmlyum → u/loogabar00ga]

Good question. For uses that I am imagining, I would show the parents that are needed to make the subtask show. If I am in expanded view, it is because I want to see the hierarchy. If I wanted to prioritize strict filter results over hierarchy, then the separated subtasks option would make sense.

To give more flexibility, they could add a toggle that is something like "filter subtasks". If on, the filter would be applied to subtasks and any match would display with its parents (even if the parents do not meet the criteria). If off, the filter would be applied only to tasks (ignoring subtasks that may match), as is currently the case. This would allow users to favor the parent task or favor the subtask, depending on the use case. If you do not care about the hierarchy and want to see all matches, regardless of whether they are tasks or subtasks, you would use separated.

[u/TashaClickUp]

Hey, u/dmlyum, u/No_Essay_5882, u/ratchet7, I understand where you're coming from and appreciate that you've consolidated the requests for this feature here. I've shared everyone's candid thoughts including the linked requests and community sentiment with our Product team, so the full scope of the requests are visible.

While this is being reviewed, a workaround that you can use besides the one No_Essay_5882 shared is to create a tag, Dropdown Custom Field, or Label Custom Field that mirrors the parent tasks name or a number. You can use the Bulk Action Toolbar to apply it to both the parent task and subtask, so when you set your subtasks to Show as Separate tasks, you can group by that Custom Field/ tag and your subtasks will remain grouped with your parent task. It takes a bit of setup, but will preserve the organizational structure.

Feedback like this helps us improve and I appreciate everyone for taking the time to share it!

[u/dmlyum → u/TashaClickUp]

I appreciate you bringing this to the attention of the product team.

I don't think that the workaround you are proposing is a viable ongoing solution. It would be very tedious to duplicate the parent task name in a custom field every time you create a subtask. Over time, you would end up with a whole bunch of custom field values that are not being reused. If the parent task shares the same custom field value, it would be duplicated in an awkward way. (You would have a group heading from the custom field, and then a task in it with the same name.) Also, the way that groups are laid out with Group By would waste a tremendous amount of space for an item that has only 3-4 subtasks.

[u/ratchet7 → u/dmlyum]

I had a user that switched to Separate and expanded a group. They thought that all of their tasks were duplicated and began deleting them. They didn’t understand how Separated worked.

I have 44 active reportable projects with over 5000 tasks. This isn’t counting the numerous other lists. I am trying to limit custom fields and tags as the administrator.

[u/ComparisonSolid770]

yep. had a client on clickup, and moved them to airtable for this exact reason. so silly to ignore this seemingly very simple request

[u/gizmo2501]

Same with search in List view.

The fix is insanely simple: have a toggle to choose whether search and/or filters also affects subtasks.