“is not an existing data source name”

Today, I was troubleshooting an in-house application for a user. I was getting the below error “is not an existing data source name” when I click Configure for one of the DSN e.g. Campaign. I tried to removing it by clicking the Remove but it doesn’t work either.

Fig 1.1

I realised campaign appear as a “String Value” in “ODBC Data Sources” Key but not as a “Key” in the “ODBC.INI” Key. Look under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\ODBC Data Sources in your registry editor (You can type “regedit” without the quote in your Start -> Run to launch your registry editor).

Fig 1.2 (On the right column of regedit, you see Campaign “String Value”)

What do I mean not as a key? Compare Fig 1.3 and Fig1.4 to see what I actually meant here.

A corrupted DSN

Fig 1.3 (Campaign is not inside)

A proper DSN

Fig 1.4 (You should see Campaign)

Solution:
You need to remove campaign “String Value” from the “ODBC Data Sources” Key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC\ODBC.INI\ODBC Data Sources. (You need not to restart to your computer after removing)

Fig 1.5

Now you should be able to recreate the campaign in your Administrative Tool -> Data Sources (ODBC). Did you realiase campaign is now being created properly as a “Key” under “ODBC.INI” and as a “String Value” under ODBC Data Sources in Fig 1.6.

Fig 1.6