QuickBooks Error 3371

A co-worker ran into a problem while she was working out at a client’s office this week and she called me for help.  QuickBooks wouldn’t open and gave her the following message:

Could not initialize license properties. Error 3371: QuickBooks could not load the license data. This may be caused by missing or damaged files.

I had never encountered this problem before so I hit Google and after a couple of minutes came up with several support articles.

I saw messageboard postings from several people that experienced this error message after installing one of the Norton Anti-Virus products.  Apparently it overwrites a key QuickBooks file and QuickBooks can’t start up due to the corruption.

The QuickBooks support knowledgebase suggested 3 different steps to resolve the issue.  The last resort was to completely uninstall and reinstall QuickBooks, which we wanted to avoid if at all possible.  How many clients do you have that would be able to easily locate their installation CD, installation key code and registration number?  I decided to have her try the easiest step first, which was to repair the QuickBooks installation.  These are the steps involved:

1. Close QuickBooks.
2. Click the Windows Start button and select Run.
3. Enter control in the Open field and click OK.
4. Double-click Add or Remove Programs.
5. Right-click your QuickBooks program version and click Change/Remove.
6. Follow the instructions to Repair your QuickBooks installation, and then open QuickBooks.

This process took about 10 minutes and when it was done she was able to open QuickBooks normally and get to work.  Problem solved!

This is just another example of how the Norton Anti-Virus line of products have fallen from grace over the last few years.  Norton used to be the product to recommend and was considered the best anti-virus program.  Now I go out of my way to recommend that people avoid it whenever possible.  It causes so many conflicts with other software and is such a resource hog that I can’t recommend it to anyone.  I recommend products such as NOD32, AVG and Trend Micro.