app version patch number cannot be greater than 65535

Error message

app version patch number cannot be greater than 65535

What it means

Validation guard in validate_wix_version: the patch component of the app version exceeds 65535, which would overflow the MSI ProductVersion patch field during the WiX build. The version string is rejected before the installer is generated.

Solutions

Lower the patch version component to 65535 or below in tauri.conf.json
Change the CI versioning scheme to mod/rotate the build counter, or place large counters in the 4th build field only if ≤65535 too
Use the msi upgrade-code strategy for increments instead of ever-growing patch numbers

Example fix

// before (tauri.conf.json)
"version": "1.0.70000"
// after
"version": "1.0.65535"

Defensive patterns

Strategy: validation

Validate before calling

fn msi_patch_ok(v: &str) -> bool {
  v.split('.').nth(2)
    .and_then(|p| p.parse::<u64>().ok())
    .map(|p| p <= 65535)
    .unwrap_or(false)
}

Try / catch

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

Prevention

If patch = CI build number, wrap it: build_number % 65536
Set an alert before the build counter hits 65535
Verify version limits whenever changing the versioning scheme

When it happens

Trigger: Bundling an msi whose app version patch number is 65536 or greater — e.g. version "1.0.70000" in tauri.conf.json — during build_wix_app_installer.

Common situations: CI pipelines that use a global commit/build counter as the patch number (e.g. "1.0.{build_number}") once the counter passes 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/d893ce4db296a139. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at crates/tauri-bundler/src/bundle/windows/msi/mod.rs:331

  let components = version_str
    .split('.')
    .flat_map(|c| c.parse::<u64>().ok())
    .collect::<Vec<_>>();

  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!(

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