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Participant
November 10, 2008
Question

"...file-format module cannot parse the file" Error

  • November 10, 2008
  • 7 replies
  • 229815 views
I am using PS CS3 Extended on a PC

I keep getting the error...file-format module cannot not parse the file" errors when attempting to open PNG or GIF files that were created using the same version of Photoshop.

I used to have to reboot the machine to get rid of this error - but that is no longer working.

The error is occuring more and more frequently.

I really need to edit these files.

Please tell me how to fix this.

I have seen this error in the forum - but was unable to find a real solution. Rebooting the machine is not really a solution.

Thanks
JD
This topic has been closed for replies.

7 replies

Participant
August 16, 2020

Try this. It is a webp image format. rename the file to webp. open in paint and save as jpg. I open images with irfanView. it fixed the issue.

edandme
Participant
July 3, 2018

I had the same problem. Opened it up in preview on my mack and re-saved the PNG. The resultant file opened up just fine. Not sure what I would have done if it had been the actual .psd file that was acting up. Luckily it was just a .png in my case. Panicked for a little while because I had since changed the .psd file to a point that it would be really annoying to undo all of the edits. Hope this helps.

Participant
April 19, 2011

Right click file and open it in "PAINT" for PC or "PREVIEW" on MAC. Save as Jpeg. Reopen in Photoshop

Noel Carboni
Legend
April 19, 2011

KiranF wrote:

Right click file and open it in "PAINT" for PC or "PREVIEW" on MAC. Save as Jpeg. Reopen in Photoshop

May I suggest instead of Save as JPEG, that you use a lossless format instead, e.g., .BMP.  This will preserve quality.

-Noel

Participating Frequently
February 9, 2010

Hi, were you able to fix this problem? I'm having the same problem with CS4 Extended on Windows Vista Home Premium and have tried everything I've found to solve it but to no avail. It's hair-tearing stuff!!!

Cheers

Maggiestam

Chris Cox
Legend
February 12, 2010

Your files are corrupted, there is nothing to fix on the Photoshop side of things.

You need to go to a backup of those files that are not corrupted.

Participating Frequently
February 12, 2010

Thanks for trying Chris but the files are not corrupted. They open sometimes in CS4, and always do in CS3 and Elements 6, as well as on another computer. I'm talking about all my PNG files. They work most of the time, just not all of the time. If I close down PS CS4 and open it again they open just fine for a while before the problem starts again.

I reset all preferences to factory defaults and uninstalled/ re-installed again this morning so now I'll see what happens.

Cheers

Maggie

Participant
November 20, 2008
Sounds to me like the file format modules (the things that allow you to open files of certain types, such as PNG) have become corrupted for whatever reason. I would advise doing a virus scan of course, but it could just be that they've become corrupt too. It happens.

I had the same thing happen on one of my other machines, and all it took to fix it was to replace the BMP, PNG and Targa file format .8bi file in the photoshop folder. While the following article is about replacing them because of a security flaw, it still gives you the downloads and the information on where to place the new .8bi files. Give this a try. Worked for me.

Here is that article with the downloads. You'll want to follow the manual instructions:
http://www.adobe.com/support/security/bulletins/apsb07-13.html
Mylenium
Legend
November 10, 2008
As Toby said - time to do some serious checking or you may find yourself with a completely defunct system tomorrow. I wouldn't go as far as attributing this to a hardware error, but it's quite possible that a system DLL used by the loaders is missing/ damaged. Also, since GIFs and PNGs are web image file formats, for the life of it make sure you create proper rules for your virus scanner and firewall to exclude locally created files. Some tools will make files "inert" (to prevent piggyback malware attacks) by chopping off/ changing a few bytes instead of correctly containing them in a safe vault or they may damage the file structure when deep-scanning...

Mylenium
Inspiring
November 10, 2008
Does not sound like a Photoshop issue. I'd blame hardware (test RAM and disks), or Windows.