app version build number cannot be greater than 65535

Error message

app version build number cannot be greater than 65535

What it means

Validation guard in validate_wix_version: the optional fourth build component of the app version exceeds 65535, which is the maximum allowed for the build segment of an MSI ProductVersion. Only fires when the version string has exactly 4 components.

Solutions

Lower the 4th version component to 65535 or below in tauri.conf.json
Drop the 4th component entirely (three-part versions are accepted)
Remap the build counter (e.g. modulo 65536) in the packaging script

Example fix

// before (tauri.conf.json)
"version": "1.0.0.100000"
// after
"version": "1.0.0.10000"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn msi_build_ok(v: &str) -> bool {
  v.split('.').nth(3)
    .and_then(|p| p.parse::<u64>().ok())
    .map(|b| b <= 65535)
    .unwrap_or(true) // 3-part versions are fine
}

Try / catch

if let Err(e) = bundle_msi(cfg) {
  eprintln!("msi version invalid: {e}");
}

Prevention

Keep 4th version components ≤ 65535 or drop them entirely
Centralize version assembly so Windows limits are applied once
Test bundle with a dry-run before official Windows releases

When it happens

Trigger: Bundling an msi with a four-part app version whose build number is 65536 or greater — e.g. "1.0.0.100000" in tauri.conf.json — during build_wix_app_installer.

Common situations: Windows-style versioning scripts that inject a large FILEVERSION/build counter as the 4th part; reusing a non-Windows build number that has already exceeded 65535.

Understand the failure class

Background: "value must be between 0 and 1" / "out of range" / "must not be negative" errors: fixing range-validation failures across open-source libraries — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of tauri-apps/tauri@460ec35447 (2026-09-18). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5ca20431ddb6bfa5. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tauri-bundler/src/bundle/windows/msi/mod.rs:335

  if components.len() < 3 {
    crate::error::bail!(
      "app wix version should be in the format major.minor.patch.build (build is optional)"
    );
  }

  if components[0] > 255 {
    crate::error::bail!("app version major number cannot be greater than 255");
  }
  if components[1] > 255 {
    crate::error::bail!("app version minor number cannot be greater than 255");
  }
  if components[2] > 65535 {
    crate::error::bail!("app version patch number cannot be greater than 65535");
  }

  if components.len() == 4 && components[3] > 65535 {
    crate::error::bail!("app version build number cannot be greater than 65535");
  }

  Ok(())
}

// WiX requires versions to be numeric only in a `major.minor.patch.build` format
fn convert_version(version_str: &str) -> crate::Result<String> {
  let version = semver::Version::parse(version_str)
    .map_err(Into::into)
    .context("invalid app version")?;
  if !version.build.is_empty() {
    let build = version.build.parse::<u64>();
    if build.map(|b| b <= 65535).unwrap_or_default() {
      return Ok(format!(
        "{}.{}.{}.{}",
        version.major, version.minor, version.patch, version.build
      ));
    } else {

View on GitHub (pinned to 460ec35447)