Monday, 28 January 2008

Outlook 2003 - Error - MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong version.

We were working with a client system that had a copy of Office 2007 Trial on it.

We removed the trial version of Office. After Office 2007 was uninstalled and we went to start Outlook 2003 we ended up with:


Microsoft Office Outlook

Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong version. This could have been caused by installing other messaging software. Please reinstall Outlook.
Note that the error message indicates that we are supposed to reinstall Outlook. So, we ran a repair and then a reinstall of Office 2003 Professional both of which did not work.

After searching around for a fix, we came up with the following Microsoft Knowledgebase article: KB926196: Error message when you try to start Outlook 2003: "MAPI32.DLL is corrupt or the wrong version".

Here is the proper fix:
  1. Start Windows Explorer.
  2. Locate and then open the following folder on your computer: C:\Program Files\Common Files\System\Msmapi\1033
  3. Right-click the MSMapi32.dll file, and then click Rename.
    • Note The file (Msmapi32.dll) that you are renaming differs from the file (Mapi32.dll) that is mentioned in the error message.
  4. Type Msmapi32.old, and then press ENTER to rename the file.
  5. Start Outlook 2003.
The above method worked.

And, we have learned a little lesson here: A little time invested in searching out the error would have saved us the repair/reinstall time and had our client up and running a lot quicker.

It also reminds us that product error messages can be quite situational and time limited in their orientation. When the above message was written into Outlook 2003, the possible conflicts caused by Office 2007 were unknown to the product teams.

Philip Elder
MPECS Inc.
Microsoft Small Business Specialists

*All Mac on SBS posts are posted on our in-house iMac via the Safari Web browser.
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28 comments:

  1. Anonymous24 February, 2008 14:12

    Thank-you very much for this!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous04 August, 2008 14:26

    You are awesome! I wondered if you had typed the wrong MSMAPI32.dll so I didn't want to try your instructions. When all else failed I did and it worked! Thank you so much!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Philip Elder Cluster MVP04 August, 2008 17:37

    You are both very welcome! :)

    Philip

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous07 August, 2008 02:43

    Thanks so Much!!!
    Worked 4 me, and I though I will need to reinstall everything.
    I use outlook 2003 and office 2007, after 2007 SP1 started getting these errors.
    Your solution saved me a lot of time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous24 September, 2008 12:37

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  6. a legal alien06 December, 2008 12:48

    Hi! Thanks for your post. However for me it did not work. I wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that MS does not allow to run office 2007 on win2008 terminal server, and if this created a registry to prevent any other office versions to be ran.

    ReplyDelete
  7. a legal alien06 December, 2008 12:51

    Well, after a few repairs and restarts it does seem to be working after all.
    Thanks for your help!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous27 December, 2008 14:08

    From Greg....Thankyou so much for this.You saved my sanity. Shame MS couldnt have been more proactive in creating a proper fix (service pack or patch) instead of a hard to locate service bulletin on their site. After all the error was created by them. I spent many frustrating hours, reinstalling Office 2003. This was after I had removed the Office 2007 60-day offer software with PC. Many others have probably had this happen. So finding your site was a welcome relief. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous27 December, 2008 14:10

    From Greg....Thankyou so much for this.You saved my sanity. Shame MS couldnt have been more proactive in creating a proper fix (service pack or patch) instead of a hard to locate service bulletin on their site. After all the error was created by them. I spent many frustrating hours, reinstalling Office 2003. This was after I had removed the Office 2007 60-day offer software with PC. Many others have probably had this happen. So finding your site was a welcome relief. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous01 January, 2009 13:53

    Thank you! Thank you! Now I can start the new year on the right foot.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous01 January, 2009 13:55

    Thank you! Thank you! Your fix worked beautifully. Now I can start the new year on the right foot. Happy New Year to you, and thank you very much for your help.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anonymous14 January, 2009 03:07

    renaming doesnt work , but i deleted msmapi32.dll and it works , you cant delete this file directly , you can use unlocker prgram to delete it, and start outlook then.

    thanks
    regards

    ReplyDelete
  13. Unknown05 February, 2009 11:35

    Thank you for this post. It worked for me when so many other things I tried didn't.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous10 February, 2009 04:41

    In this situation try-view .pst files,tool is free,it can help to restore a mailbox,stored on Microsoft Exchange Server or a file with *.pst extension,tool belongs to programs that view .pst,it will process any file,it is safe to work even with damaged files,will perform necessary actions, you can see a preview window,that shows recovered folder tree and emails in a preview mode,can convert your file to a file with *.pst extension, that follows the original structure,viewing pst files without Outlook is not usually needed on a regular basis.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Unknown11 February, 2009 06:58

    I'm not sure if I'm performing the task correctly. When I change the file name to .old, restart Outlook, I get the windows installer box and it says preparing to install. After 1 minute I get the error message again and to reinstall Outlook. Please help, it's killing my business?

    Thanks, Jeremy

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous30 April, 2009 11:32

    Thank you so much! This worked perfectly!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous28 May, 2009 16:16

    Had long time problem with corrupt map132.dll Other sites kept pushing a registry cleaner. Your help was the only real technical process offered and the file renaming fixed my problem. Thank you. Louis

    ReplyDelete
  18. nadine07 August, 2009 16:04

    I've been suffering from this a long time ago
    and tried everything, but nothing worked
    and when i saw your solution, i just did it because i ran out of choices

    but it worked, it even worked better than the one mentioned on support.microsoft.com

    thank you very much :)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Philip Elder Cluster MVP08 August, 2009 10:17

    All y'all are welcome! :)

    Philip

    ReplyDelete
  20. Unknown25 September, 2009 09:35

    Thanks!!!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous06 October, 2009 19:34

    Very important to make sure you type MSMAPI32.dll & MAPI32.dll in capitals otherwise it wont work. There is a mapi32 file that is in lower case. This may confuse some people.. It did me for a minute!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Stenner09 November, 2009 07:30

    @ ALL Who have trouble simply renaming it to the .old extension. TRY DELETING IT (or renaming the actual file name/moving it to a different location) and then restarting Outlook. It should work then, it worked for me.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous05 January, 2010 14:31

    tried this on my Windows7, no succes. MSMAPI32.dll cannot be found

    ReplyDelete
  24. Jasmin27 May, 2010 11:29

    OH MY GOSH! You've saved me! I don't know how i screwed it up in the first place, but thank you SOOO much. Now I don't have to tell my boss. Haha. Again... THANK YOU!!!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Jasmin27 May, 2010 11:29

    OH MY GOSH! You've saved me! I don't know how i screwed it up in the first place, but thank you SOOO much. Now I don't have to tell my boss. Haha. Again... THANK YOU!!!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Bernie01 November, 2010 21:23

    Great fix all worked as detailed! Your description of error & messages was exactly what we experienced. Windows 7 with Outlook 2003

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous03 October, 2011 05:44

    after update this process it is working fine with MS office 2003

    ReplyDelete
  28. Geoff04 June, 2012 08:43

    Tried it, just came up with a load more errors that I don't understand. Was worth a try but no good.

    ReplyDelete

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