Build Error 6423

[#1]

Summary

Build Error 6423 occurs when the build is unable to generate a patch for a Basic MSI project

Symptoms

When building a project created with InstallShield that is a minor upgrade, the following error may occur:

"Error -6423: The project contains a Minor Upgrade item that references the setup [1]. However, the referenced setup can only be upgraded with a Major Upgrade. Please use the Major Upgrade item or the automatic upgrade item."

[1] is a placeholder that contains the full path to the MSI file being referenced as the previous setup in the Upgrades view.

Cause

When a Minor Upgrade item is added to a project, during the build process, some checking is done to ensure your project works correctly as a minor upgrade. To perform a minor upgrade successfully, the latest version of the project must have the following changes when compared to the previous version that it will be upgrading:

• New package code must be generated.
• The version number must be incremented to contain a later version.

In addition, as a rule, the following should not change between the previous and latest version of the project:

• Product code should remain the same.

If any of these criteria are not met, the minor upgrade will not perform as expected. This build error occurs as a result of at least one of the above criteria not being met in the latest version of the project.

Resolution

The easiest way to resolve this error is to remove the Minor Upgrade item and, instead, create a Major Upgrade item in the Upgrades view within the InstallShield IDE. As the criteria for a minor upgrade was not met, the criteria for a major upgrade should be met as it's not as strict in its requirements.

If you are unsure of which upgrade item you need to use, you can use the Automatic Upgrade Item and let the InstallShield build engine author the appropriate upgrade settings for you.

If you must use a Minor Upgrade item, you need to compare the latest version of the project to the previous version and ensure all the criteria in the Cause section above are met. Once these criteria are met, a minor upgrade should build correctly with no errors.

Additional Information

Additional information on the Upgrades view can be found in the Help Library topic Upgrades View.

Additional information on minor and major upgrades can be found in the Help Library topics Minor Upgrades and Major Upgrades.