What does Windows error code 4402 (ERROR_APP_DATA_CORRUPT) mean?

 
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ERROR_APP_DATA_CORRUPT

Fast Cache data corrupt.

ERROR_APP_DATA_CORRUPT is Win32 error 4402 (0x1132) and belongs to Fast Cache data integrity. The system description identifies the immediate condition but does not identify the caller, object, policy, device, service instance, or transition that produced it.

Interpret this result at the API boundary that returned it. Capture it before logging, cleanup, or another Windows call can replace the thread-local last-error value. Compare the recorded inputs with the documented precondition for Fast Cache data integrity rather than starting with a broad system repair.

Where the result appears

  • This result can surface during deserializing a Fast Cache entry.
  • This result can surface during checking cached state after an interrupted write.
  • It can surface during reading cache data across an application upgrade.
  • It can surface during validating protected or checksummed cached content.

Likely causes

  • the entry is truncated or partially replaced.
  • checksum, signature, or structural validation failed.
  • old and new schema fields were mixed during upgrade.
  • storage or memory corruption altered the cached bytes.

Diagnostic sequence

Diagnosis of it starts with the exact request type: read, write, create, transition, validation, cancellation, or administrative action. Identify the object generation and subsystem owner, then decide whether the failure happened before side effects, during a partial transition, or after completion. This ordering matters in Fast Cache data integrity because a blind retry can hide stale state or repeat a non-idempotent change.

  • record exact entry bytes or a safe hash.
  • record expected and detected schema version.
  • record integrity-check result and parser location.
  • record write journal, crash, and storage events.
  • record authoritative source used to rebuild the entry.

Correlate it with the owning component’s operational log, the Windows System log, and any subsystem trace. Telemetry for it should preserve native identifiers such as a path or file ID, handle generation, node or peer identity, policy ID, object version, offset and length, or transaction token. Retain decimal 4402, hexadecimal 0x1132, and the producing API even when a localized message is also shown.

State boundary to prove

The decisive boundary for it is whether the entry is truncated or partially replaced. Prove or disprove that proposition using exact entry bytes or a safe hash together with expected and detected schema version. When observations for it disagree, preserve both and inspect the transition between them instead of choosing the more convenient value.

A focused validation for it should recreate the relevant part of this situation: a process crashes between truncating and rewriting a cache file. The next launch detects a short payload, discards it, and rebuilds from the source. The negative case should keep the responsible condition unchanged and confirm error 4402; the recovery case should change only that condition and verify a successful result without an unrecorded side effect.

Handling, retry, and recovery

Quarantine or delete only the affected cache entry through the owning API, reload authoritative data, and use atomic writes to prevent another partial replacement.

Retry it only after evidence shows a change in Fast Cache data integrity. Initialization, asynchronous completion, recall, or service readiness can justify bounded backoff; malformed metadata, invalid identifiers, policy rejection, unsupported versions, and integrity failures require correction. Before repeating a write or configuration operation after it, query completion state explicitly.

What to log for support and telemetry

  • log decimal 4402, hexadecimal 0x1132, and the producing API.
  • log the target object and observed Fast Cache data integrity state.
  • log caller identity, process and thread IDs, machine or node identity, and UTC time.
  • log attempt number, elapsed time, previous result, and any partial side effect.
  • retain the first lower-level or component-specific error before Win32 translation.

Difference from nearby codes

CORRUPT is not a freshness decision: even a newly written entry is unusable when its structure or integrity is invalid.

Practical example

A process crashes between truncating and rewriting a cache file.

Developer and administrator guidance

Code that handles it should keep its Win32 domain visible across exceptions, RPC responses, and JSON or REST wrappers. Administrators should verify the subsystem evidence before changing policy, deleting state, forcing failover, or replacing storage. Recovery is demonstrated only when a test observes 4402, changes the responsible condition, and confirms that the same operation succeeds without hidden data loss.

References

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