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QPLIST_E_EXPECTING_TYPE
A property definition is missing its type specifier
QPLIST_E_EXPECTING_TYPE is HRESULT 0x80041654. Windows documents it as “Expecting type specifier.”
Exact contract boundary
This result belongs to legacy Windows property-list parsing and is returned while reading the type field after a property identity has been accepted. The exact condition is: the entry ends, contains an empty field or substitutes a display format where an OLE DB DBTYPE is required.
This value belongs to the legacy property-list parser used to describe indexed properties and their types. Diagnose the external list as structured configuration: preserve line, column, token, type grammar and the property-list version instead of treating the file as arbitrary text. The exact public message comes from the legacy SDK contract; current property-system documentation does not replace the property-list grammar that rejected this file.
Input or state defects
Rejection of the property list does not yet distinguish file access, tokenization, type composition, GUID syntax or duplicate-definition failure.
Incident record
- Associate property identity with the exact UTC timestamp and correlation identifier.
- Compare failing and known-good values for raw type field under the same provider or handler version.
- Record the source and normalization path of expected DBTYPE, not only its display form.
- Record schema version before releasing the relevant objects.
- Associate property-list file identity and hash with the exact UTC timestamp and correlation identifier.
Hash the complete file if it is sensitive while retaining encoding, line, column, raw token class and the surrounding property declaration.
How to isolate the cause
- Capture property identity and raw type field at the call boundary that returns this result.
- Confirm the operation reached reading the type field after a property identity has been accepted with the intended expected DBTYPE.
- compare the current property with authoritative schema metadata and the exact delimiter sequence.
Begin with a one-property list accepted by the same parser, then restore the failing declaration token by token while preserving encoding and line endings.
Restoration strategy
Emit a supported base DBTYPE and keep VECTOR/BYREF modifiers separate. Delay cannot repair a deterministic file, token or type-grammar defect; retry only after the property list or its readable source changes.
Scope of the result
It does not prove that every property definition is unusable or that reindexing is required; it identifies a property-list read or grammar boundary.
Comparison with adjacent codes
QPLIST_E_UNRECOGNIZED_TYPE means a token exists but cannot be mapped.
Developer and administrator guidance
Example from a search pipeline
A custom property name is present but its type column is blank. The generator derives DBTYPE_WSTR from schema instead of guessing.
Official Microsoft references
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