Suddenly cannot open JPG files [OSX]

[Mike Diehl]

Mac Pro / OS 10.6.8 running CS6 (yes, I know).

Things were running perfectly until I installed a Camera Raw updater a week or so ago, in order to open .cr2 files from my son's Canon camera. That worked, but I found myself getting this error when trying to open a simple JPG file: "Could not complete your request because the file was not found"

Inexplicably PS will occasionally open one, just to vex me.

I found a discussion in which Terri Stevens answered the question for someone, but they were using 10.8.

I've reinstalled Photoshop and run the updater; I saw and tried resetting PS with Cmd-Opt-Shift pressed down. (All that did was reinstate that main window I'd somehow managed to get rid of some years back, but haven't figured out how to do again.) My latest gambit was to uninstall Camera Raw, but after removing every file I could identify, the problem was not solved.

I can only imagine there's some little gremlin lurking about, installed (or removed) when I messed with the Camera Raw configuration, but it's beyond me to identify it, or know what else to try. I'm grateful for any thoughts. Thanks in advance.

[Trevor.Dennis]

Are you trying to open from within Photoshop, or from the Finder, or Bridge, or Lightroom or what?

File not found sounds like a corrupt cache.  If you were opening from Bridge, then Purging the cache would fix that.  What about dragging a JPG from the Finder onto the Photoshop window?

[Mike Diehl]

I'm using the Open... command from within Photoshop, and also have tried dragging files onto the PS icon in the toolbar.

Per your suggestion, I restarted in Safe Boot mode, emptied the Cache folders in three Libraries, and for extra measure ran FontNuke, which addresses font caches (something recommended to me by, dare I say it, a QuarkXPress tech many years ago).

The symptoms, my inability to open a JPG file, remains unchanged. Thanks, though, for your suggestions.

[gener7 · Accepted solution]

I'm trying to understand what you did. What exact software name, version did you install?

CS6 on 10.6.8 cannot take later than version 8.3 of Adobe Camera Raw and even 8.3 of the DNG Converter, which is why it isn't possible to update it to take newer cameras.

From this link, download ACR 8.3 and install it. I don't know what you put in, but I figure it's causing the problem since that's when the trouble started.

Adobe Camera Raw 8.4 or later on Mac OS 10.6, Windows XP, and Vista

A second idea is to look at the File Info on any jpeg (cmd i) and see what it opens with. Set it to Photoshop CS6 and click on "Change all".

Gene (friendly neighborhood Mac guy)

[Mike Diehl]

Gene, thank you, clearing out files from the places mentioned on those instructions and installing CR and DNG Converter 8.3 was the exact (and for me, correct) answer. I felt that to be the case yesterday, as it worked immediately, but I wanted to open a bunch more JPGs before feeling confident it was completely resolved.

What I hadn't mentioned is that my computer guy (who's also a friendly neighborhood Mac guy) said he's seen this issue and recommended upgrading my OS. Seemed like overkill, especially as I had a good sense of what "broke" it originally, so I'm most grateful for your incisive diagnosis and prescription.

There are plenty of reasons to upgrade the OS, and I will likely do so as part of a hardware upgrade) sooner than later, but it's nice to have this supremely stable and functional system back in the pink. Again, thank you very much.

[gener7]

I'm glad that worked. There are many users who prefer to stay with 10.6 and Windows XP so we see what we can do.

Gene