Unable to cast COM object - Microsoft outlook & C#

22
votes

I have written this code to view the unread items in my outlook mail box and here is the code:

 Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application app;
 Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Items items; 
 Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.NameSpace ns; 
 Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MAPIFolder inbox;

 Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application application = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application();
        app = application;
        ns =  application.Session;
        inbox = ns.GetDefaultFolder(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox);
        items = inbox.Items;
        foreach (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MailItem mail in items)
        {
            if (mail.UnRead == true)
            {
                MessageBox.Show(mail.Subject.ToString());
            }
        }

but on the foreach loop I am getting this error:

"Unable to cast COM object of type 'System.__ComObject' to interface type 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MailItem'. This operation failed because the QueryInterface call on the COM component for the interface with IID '{00063034-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}' failed due to the following error: No such interface supported (Exception from HRESULT: 0x80004002 (E_NOINTERFACE))."

Can you please assist me how to resolve this error?

4
c#outlookc#-2.0office-interopoutlook-2003
@Bolu No, this is what I am writing in my c# Windows application – Zerotoinfinity
MAPIFolder is deprecated, use Folder instead. – Hans Passant
Did you manage to figure this problem out? – Anders Arpi
This error is consistent with changing Office version. (it creates a whole family of problems) What needs to be done is to edit some registry files as described here: stackoverflow.com/questions/12957595/… – YuriG

4 Answers

27
votes

I had to get around something like your problem a while back.

        foreach (Object _obj in _explorer.CurrentFolder.Items)
        {
            if (_obj is MailItem)
            {
                 MyMailHandler((MailItem)_obj);
            }
        }

Hope that helps.

The issue here is that _explorer.CurrentFolder.Items can contain more objects than just MailItem (PostItem being one of them).

9
votes

try to check the item is a valid mailitem before checking its properties : 

foreach (Object mail in items)
{
    if ((mail as Outlook.MailItem)!=null && (mail as Outlook.MailItem).UnRead == true)
    {
        MessageBox.Show((mail as Outlook.MailItem).Subject.ToString());
    }
}
5
votes

The following code worked fine when I tested it. But I must mention that my reference was to "Microsoft Outlook 14.0 Object Library". Do you happen to use another version?

    public class Outlook
    {
    readonly Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Items       _items;
    readonly Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.NameSpace   _ns;
    readonly Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MAPIFolder  _inbox;
    readonly Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application _application = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application(); 

    public Outlook()
    {
        _ns    = _application.Session;
        _inbox = _ns.GetDefaultFolder(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlDefaultFolders.olFolderInbox);
        _items = _inbox.Items;

        foreach (var item in _items)
        {
            string subject= string.Empty;
            var mail    = item as Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.MailItem;
            if (mail    != null)
                var subject = mail.Subject;
            else
                Debug.WriteLine("Item is not a MailItem");
        }
    }
    }

Please note that in Outlook, many items have some common properties (e.g. expiration time), so you can, as a desperate workaround, use a "dynamic" datatype - either as a fallback scenario for unknown item types or as your default (as long as you're fine with the performance hit).

1
votes

Nice! adapted the solution a bit, this worked well for me

foreach (dynamic item in mailItems)
        {
            if (item is MailItem)
            {
                Response.Write("Sender: ");
                Response.Write(item.SenderEmailAddress);
                Response.Write(" - To:");
                Response.Write(item.To);
                Response.Write("<br>");
            }
        }