Outlook 2007: Cannot open this item

Products

• Symantec Products

Issue/Introduction

When attempting to open an unencrypted message in Outlook 2007, you receive the following error:

Cannot open this item. Unknown Error.

If you temporarily disable the PGP Email Proxy or stop PGP Services, you can open the email message as normal.

 

Resolution

This issue can occur on systems after upgrading from Office/Outlook 2003 to Office/Outlook 2007.

To resolve this issue after upgrading to Outlook 2007, use the fixmapi.exe utility to update the MAPI32.dll. The fixmapi.exe is located in the C:\Windows\system32 folder.

To use the fixmapi.exe utility  

1. Exit all open programs.
2. Browse to the C:\Windows\System32 folder and search for fixmapi.exe.
3. Double-click fixmapi.exe to run the program.

If the fixmapi utility does not correct the error message, use the following steps: 
 

1. Exit all open programs.
2. Browse to the C:\Windows\System32 folder and search for mapi32.dll.
3. Right-click the file and select Rename then rename the file to Mapi32.old.
4. Search for the fixmapi.exe file, and double-click Fixmapi.exe to run the program.
5. Restart your computer.

 

Note: A PGP Messaging proxy failure may also be caused by Microsoft Exchange components being installed on a system with Microsoft Outlook. This configuration is unsupported by Microsoft and also causes the PGP messaging proxy to fail to encrypt or decrypt email messages. Microsoft Exchange components and Microsoft Outlook should not be installed on the same system.