could not complete your request because the file is not compatible with this version of photoshop

In regards to the original question of when trying to open a .psd file and getting the "could not complete your request..." , we have noticed that it seems to affect only files that were saved as photoshop documents. I have not had any problems with .eps or .tif files. I first noticed this problem in CS, then CS2 and most recently in CS3. Just for kicks, we tried to open the same .psd in an old version of Photoshop we are running on an old machine (PS 5.5 on Mac OS 9.2.1) and it opened correctly. Of course this will not hold any effects that were specific to later versions and up. Could there be any problems with a combination of OS and newer versions of PS? Just throwing it out there for discussion. We do not get this problem very often, but it seems that always bites you on a rush job or complex file.

Norton is NASTY stuff in OS X. Stay away from anything with the Norton name if you're on any version of OS X, especially do NOT let anything with the Norton name (like Norton Anti Virus, File Saver) ever reside on your computer.

NAV (Norton Anti Virus) can lead to permanent file damage. Files damaged by NAV are not recoverable. NAV can also prevent many PostScript files from parsing, even if not damaged permanently.

Disk Doctor and Speed Disk are known to cause the kind of directory damage that can lead to kernel panics.

http://www.macmaps.com/kernelpanic.html

Another excellent reason to steer clear from all things Norton!

The kernel panic FAQ is divided by the order of most common occurrences of kernel panics:

* Directory
* Drivers
* Permissions
* RAM

1. A directory failure or user accidentally moving .kext files that should be left alone. The directory may fail, due to an accident caused by Norton Utilities or Systemworks, which may at random corrupt a directory even when trying to repair it. Norton Anti-Virus will not do this, but Norton Disk Doctor and Norton Speed Disk have a history of doing this.

[emphasis mine]

Renee,

No, spaces in the file name will NOT damage a file.

However, Norton Anti Virus on the server WILL permanently damage Photoshop files.

renee,
>save back to desktop and copy to server.

Uh, oh...that might be the answer right there -- unless you mean drag a copy to the server.

You should not "Save" or "Save as..." directly to the network server due to possible file corruption (this point has been discussed at length in these Forums, and Adobe warns against the practice). You should always drag a copy of the file to your Desktop (or a suitable folder on your drive), work on it locally, save it locally...and then drag that saved version back to the server. And you should not work directly on a file, on the server.

Neil

I have been saving the files to my desktop and then open save back to desktop and copy to server.

I know that trying to save files with too many characters will not work on the server. I have seen this happen with it changes the names to garbage, but generally they wont be corrupt, just hard to find or figure out what they are without opening them.

I have just never had issues with spaces in my naming conventions on my mac - ever. Only when I need to share the files with a pc user do I make sure that there are no spaces.

This is the boilerplate text I use in connection to saving to a network (please NOTE the part where it explains that normally, it does work, but that it is impossible to troubleshoot someone else's network remotely, and that's why it's not supported by Adobe):

If you are opening files over a network or saving them to a network server, please cease and desist immediately in the event you are currently experiencing problems with one or more files. Working across a network is not supported.

See:

http://www.adobe.com/support/techdocs/322391.html

Copy the CLOSED file from your server to your local hard disk, work on it, save it again to your local hard disk, close it, and copy the closed file back to the server.

Of course, the fact that Adobe does not support working across a network does not necessarily mean it won't work. It should.

Adobe's position is that there are too many variables in a network environment for them to guarantee that everything will work correctly in every network, especially given the fact that if something does not work properly, it's probably the network's fault, and Adobe has no way of troubleshooting your network.

If you can't work locally, you are on your own, and if something happens, you're on your own. If you must work from a server, make sure your network administrator is a competent professional.

When problems arise, a lot of valuable work can be lost.

>The file is a .psd and was saved on a server from 2005.

And you're absolutely sure NAV was never installed or run on that server?

Spaces can create a problem when the file is too long and the server changes the spaces into garbage code like "&%_" or something like that, and the name gets truncated at the end because it has exceeded the limit of characters. But that's NOT going to damage a file.

However, if you have been opening and/or saving file to the server across a network, you've been playing with fire. See next post.

>I ended up calling Adobe and they said it was because I had spaces in the name.

What?!?!? Maybe for early Windows it was a problem. And Macs never had a problem other than a 31-character file name limit. Macs didn't even need a file name extension then.

The only thing you need to really do today is add the proper file extension and avoid non-standard characters when naming a file. There should be no problems with word spaces, Mac or today's Windows.

Neil

No its a brand new Macbook Pro. I just installed the software. The file is a .psd and was saved on a server from 2005. I have not had NAV ever on other machines either. I ended up calling Adobe and they said it was because I had spaces in the name. This is strange because the file was opened and saved many times over and over in 2005 with the same name and spaces. Actually I have been creating brand new .psd files in photoshop with spaces just recently and have had no problem. I never had a problem before. I guess photoshop CS3 must be more particular with the naming conventions now. Adobe said do not use any characters other than letters and numbers and no spaces. That was the best answer that they could give me. Luckily I can retrieve an older version of my file from tape back-up. This one that I am trying to open is unretrievable as is.

>When I search for this error message it tells me that the problem is Norton anti-virus. I do not have norton anti-virus installed on my mac

Did you ever have Norton Anti Virus (NAV) on your machine? Or does the file you are trying to open come from another computer that had NAV installed?

NAV damages files permanently, irretrievably, irreparably.