I had installed the Office 2007 beta 2 release to a server today, testing out functionality with the product I work on which requires Outlook for MAPI connectivity to MS Exchange. When the time came to rollback, I used the correct uninstall method (Add/Remove Programs) and rebooted before reapplying Outlook 2003.
Now, when opening an existing Outlook profile the app terminates when trying to access the profile settings (you get the lovely ‘do you want to restart in safe mode’ and ‘would you like to detect/repair’ loop going.
Trying to create a new Mail profile (either from the Outlook dialogue or from the Mail applet) resulted in this error:
There was an error locating one of the items needed to complete this operation. It might have been deleted.
Kind of makes sense I guess, the profiles were created in OL12 which was removed but the question is, how the hell do I get out of that loop?
Looking through the registry, the uninstall hadn’t removed the 12.0 keys from
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0
..so I got shot of them, still no dice.
The last thing I checked was Mapisvc.inf – both versions in system32 and %program files%\Common Files\MSMAPI\1033 were identical and hadn’t been modified since i’d installed OL12. Bingo. Once I deleted both of them, the next start of Outlook recreated the files and everything is swimming now.
Lets hope MS remember to clean up a little better in the RC and Gold versions 
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Thanks a million for your post… I just rolled back to office 2003 from 2007 pro and ran into that problem, and your solution of deleting all the occurrences of Mapisvc.inf and resterting Outlook worked great.
So nope, they didn’t clean it up any better in the end
Glad to help, it was driving me crazy at the time.
I guess they were counting on people sticking with 2007 and not going back to 2003.
Hi!
THX 1000 times. It was driving me C R A Z Y to. It is verry stupid from MS, that don’t tell us about this.
Judging by the traffic coming into this post, you’re not the only one
GENIUS
Thanks a lot. Some guy roll backed 4 PCs!!! Erggh.. headache – thanks for the post.
yup, thanks for that, saved me a lot of bother
Hey man, thanks a bunch for this fix. It worked perfectly. And not, they didn’t fix this in the final retail version of Off2k7, still doesn’t remove everything properly.
Add another 1000 thanks to the list!!!
And 1000 more! This would have taken me hours and hours to track down.
Hi Mate,
Thanks for you post I was going loopy trying to get round this one and my next path was going to be a total rebuild but now I don’t have to.
Cheers
Mike
thanks a lot big guy. that was very helpful.
I just rolled back from Office 2007 Professional to Office 2003 Professional and the error persisted.
Your fix corrected the problem.
Thank you!
Thanks for getting me out of this endless loop! Your fix worked perfectly and hope others with the same problem find this blog. Once again many thanks…
Fixed mine as well! Thank you so much! Stupid betas!
You are a life saver. Faced with a windoze rebuild is enough to ruin anyone’s day. You saved me a lot of trouble, thank you.
THANK YOU SO MUCH! I really appreciate your help. We just got a new computer that was pre-loaded with 2007, but we’re still using 2003 network-wide. A gazillion thanks to you!
Thanks a ton. This was driving me crazy. I was just about to re-format a new PC to get rid of the issue.
Saved me a bunch of time.
Thanks again.
Thank you Outlook God, you saved me a ton of time.
A thousand thank-yous. I’ve been uninstalling/detecting and repairing to no avail.
Stupid razzin frazzin fricken frazzin (said in a Fred Flintstone voice)
Thank you very mach for your tips.
I’ve got new computer with preinstalled WinXP and trial version of Office 2007, which I uninstalled right away since I have official version of Office 2003.
I spent 2 crazy days trying to solve the problem with connecting MS Outlook to SBS 2003, before start searching the Internet.
I very much appreciate your help.
Beware HP is now including Office 2007 in some of the there images. If you uninstall in and install Office 2003 you will have this issue. A search for Mapisvc.inf finds one file, but not in the location indicated above. Deleteing the one file corrected my issue.
Thanks for you help!
Hi,
Thanks a lot for your help it works.
-Imran
saved my ass. nice one.
Thankyou – lifesaver! The file for me was located in c:\program files\common files\SYSTEM\msmapi\1033\. As soon as it was deleted everything came back to life.
Thx for the info. All suggestions worked to perfection.
Thanks both to the blogger, and to Gordon… Was installing a HP machine at the office of one of our clients, found out they put Office 2007 on it…
Nice thinking both of you!
Nice one. Can you do the lead into gold thing as well?
Thanks for the solution!
I was experiencing the same problem when I found Office 2003 & 2007 on a client’s notebook. It was as if species were being mated in an immoral way!
Took your advice, deleted MAPISVC.inf, restarted Outlook and it worked.
Way to go! Spent 2 hours on this today. Could have saved the time if I had found this earlier. My situation: removed trial-ware O2K7 from new HP box. Installed corp. O2K3 and encountered specified error. Screwed around with profiles until I happened across this.
Wow – I just wasted 2 hours as well.
Seems like we wouldn’t be having this problem if Outlook 2007 were actually worth something. The performance is so slow that I’m rolling back to 2003 until they get their act together.
Thanks!
THANK YOU! YOUR SOLUTION WORKED! THANK YOU!!!!!
Thanks a million!!!
i really didnt want to stay and work any longer then i had to.. you saved me man..
thanks a 1000000000000000000000000000
I’m just a home user, non-technical. I was “rolling back” from outlook 2007 with BCM to outlook 2003 and having all sorts of issues setting up a profile. it kept on telling me i was still making a BCM database. So i did a search for the Mapisvc.inf, deleted all instances and it sprang into life. you have saved my working day and serious down time for my business….
as above a 1000 thank you’s
Thank-you!!!
I’ve been banging my head on my laptop for 24 hours trying to fix this. Your’s is the only solution that I’ve found that worked, and I’ve tried several. Why doesn’t Microsoft have this info somewhere given the number of users it might affect?
Thanks a TON on this one! Spent like half an hour on MS own support and couldn’t find this one!
Thank you so much for this post, fixed my problem perfectly! Running Outlook 2007 under Vista was just unbearable, uninstalled Outlook 2007, and installed Outlook 2003, and then being unable to figure out this problem was almost enough to cause me to whip my laptop across the room! Thanks for saving me the replacement cost of my laptop! (and my sanity)
Cheers!
This solved my issue as well, rolled back an HP with a 2007 preinstall to 2003.
THANKS!!
Had a similar issue. Before I found this post, I reinstalled office 2003, then removed Outlook from the Offce Add feature applet. Came across this post while I was waiting. But the add/remove had finished. Seems that removing the Outlook portion of Office does a similar function. Once I readded the Outlook to the office install, Outlook came back to life properly.
Many thanks though!
@Ike Loser … that solution works perfect … a quick uninstall / reinstall of outlook solved my problems.
thanks for sharing your discovery!
this bug is still in the final release of Office 2007 Pro…
THANK YOU! I have an emergency PC deployment under the gun with the CEO – all was well on PC which came with O2K7 Trial, which was removed and replaced with O2K3. NO, I didn’t bother trying to set up an e-mail profile until the night before the VVVVIP new employee starts tomorrow to save the company’s ass! This could have been VERY bad form (you know these CEOs)….
Thanks for taking the time to post this. Good vibes sent your way.
AND CURSES TO YOU, MICROSOFTINTHEHEAD!!! If only they had their crap together. My clients are all CLAMORING to go to Google Apps, which is not yet ready for prime time.
So thanks for bailing out those arrogant idiots in Redmond…
Just wanted to thanks for posting this fix. It saved my machine from being wiped, and thusly, save me the time.
Argh! That Office 2007 UI was awful and the uninstallation and downgrade to 2003 has been painful due to all the residue from 2007. A pox on the uninstall author(s)!
Never seen this error before so dropped it in Google and this was the first site I looked at. Thanks for the advice, it worked a treat. Guys like you make people here think I know what Im doing. Cheers
Thanks a lot – saved a lot more aggravation after having had enough already!
Thanks a lot! I wish I would have found your site first.
Big help! Thanks a million.
That did the trick. Thanks a bunch.
I’ve been running Office 2007 (ugh) with Outlook 2007 uninstalled, then Outlook 2003 installed. Tried to change MS Exchange servers and ran into this error.
Thanks a ton! it worked like a magic