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Could not read the file because the plug-in could not understand this file.

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
October 5, 2018
11 replies
113390 views

I am getting this error message on dozens of my files. I can't get any of them to open!

"Could not read the file because the plug-in could not understand this file."

I have Illustrator CC 2018 - The files are saved as CS6 with no PDF or attached files embedded. Only 2 linked files.

What can I do to fix my files?

Performance

Correct answer Ton Frederiks

You could try to move the file to a different folder to break the link to the linked files.

Or open the linked files in Photoshop and save them as .psd.

Accor ding to this thread it seems to be related to corrupted linked files.

CS4 error message: Could not read the file because the plug-in could not understand the file

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abdallahh70846850

New Participant

Well, everyone has shared some solutions and I wanted to share my solution as well, as I believe it is the optimal one and it was easy to implement without any difficulties.

The problem I believe is: "Could not read the file because the plug-in could not understand this file." This issue is typically encountered with older versions of the software.

I always use Illustrator 2019 and I have faced this problem before. Since I was confident that there was no issue with the software itself, I tried opening the file in Illustrator 2022, and it opened without any problems. However, it showed that one of the images needed to be relinked.

I then remembered that it was a recent image that I had added, and when I went to check the image in its location, I found that it was corrupted and even a regular image viewer could not open or preview it, showing it as an unknown object.

Therefore, I concluded that the older versions of the software cannot recognize the images when there is an issue with them. The solution is to ensure that any new images you add are sound and not corrupted. If the images are corrupted, you need to replace or change them with the same name in the file, and the software should work without any problem, even in the older version.

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francoiskroll

New Participant

In case it's helpful: I use Dropbox, and often have files as "online-only" to save space on my laptop. In my case, the source of this issue are linked files which are "online-only". If I make sure all the linked files are "make available offline", then I can open the Illustrator file.

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francoiskroll

New Participant

i.e. the linked files should have the full green tick mark which shows they are synced/downloaded from your Dropbox cloud.

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Raheel5FD0

New Participant

You should open your file in paint and then save it as JPEG or PNG.

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Senol5C39

New Participant

I've tried everything and only this worked for me. Thank you. But this is still a problem.. Why do we have to spend time with paint or something? Adobe should find a solutions for this.

STARK NOID

New Participant

This may happen bcz u must have downloaded files from the internet. Simply just follow the steps given below-

1. Open the image in paint and replace it with the corresponding image.

2. Open the image again in illustrator

forresttw97892848

New Participant

I tried everything listed here as well and none of the solutions worked.

The solution in my situation:

Updated Illustrator from 2019 to 2020

Now the files open without issue.

I'm just posting this for anyone else looking for solutions to this specific issue. Cheers

M

midman_george

New Participant

Hello Everyone. I´m at a dead end here. Im a windows user, using latest illustrator 2020.

I tried :

-Ignoring the missing png´s

-replacing the missing png´s

-Reinstalling illustrator.

All to no success. Files are in a shared online folder. Help?

Christian~F

Participating Frequently

None of these solutions worked for me. I tried EVERYTHING suggested. I did find a work-around though. I opened a new document and drug the ai. file to it. After expanding it, I was able to do with it what I wanted. It's not perfect (links were missing/broken and text was kinda split) but it saved me from typing a butt-load of text.

Illustrator 24.0.2

Windows 10

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braswels

New Participant

I am in the same boat. I have a windows machine and struggling with files that opened fine in cc 2019 but will not in cc 2020. I am no longer getting the option to re-linked file (or IGNORE); just "cannot read the file because the plug-in cannot understand the file." How can I get into the file? I would like to open the file and embed my images (no more linking) into AI. ( I just did not expect that I could not even get into the files.) I will try your work-around.

Just a comment: I have been with Adobe for years. I love the products (...when they work which is most of the time). It is so frustrating when you spend an enormeous amount of time doing research for a problem that crops up from an upgrade where you cannot open a file. We are all on crunch times.
UPDATE: Some files opened after I replaced some corrupt PNGs. AI did not tell me what the issue was with that message and so I did some troubleshooting. Everyone was talking about "Linked PNGs" being a problem and so I went that route. I started Windows Explorer and located where my PNG files were located. I set my VIEW to "Large Icons". A corrupt PNG will show the ICON of whatever default program you setup to VIEW an image. I have mine set to Photoshop as default viewer. So the corrupt PNGs showed PS Icon. Good PNGS will actually show the image. I went to a backup and found those PNGs and copied them over. My AI files opened. What I learned: a corrupt LINKED image will cause AI to not open the file at all.

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Anonymous

This indeed turned out to be corrupted linked PNGs for me. Once I identified the PNGs and replaced them, I was able to open the AI files and resume work.

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Anonymous

Change file extention from ".ai" to ".txt" to ".ai"

It worked for me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NcHlX3vUYs

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wingmlo

New Participant

I just upgraded to Illustrator 2020 and now I get this message "Could not read the file because the plug-in could not understand this file" to all my files that have clipping paths. I've tried to ignore the links, but it won't let me open the files evne when I ignore, or try to relink the images. I've tried to change the illustrator's file extension, and then chaging it back. Any other suggestions? Anyone else running into this issue?

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seconds19102724

New Participant

Thank you so much!!! You just saved my life. Your solution worked and now I can open my working files from the past 5.5 years.

I'm having this issue too! I can't seem to find "full disk access" under system preferences...what am I missing?

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graferino

New Participant

Since a few weeks, I'm having this problem more and more often

Most of the time, saving the file on the desktop and disconnecting does the trick. But when I'm connecting to the server again to link the files and find the corrupt one, there isn't any corrupt file. I can open all the files, none is corrupt. After linking them again, the AI-file still works.

But just now, I've done exactly that. I moved the file to the server again and I could open it. But now, 10 minutes later, the same problem occurs again!! As I said, I couldn't find any corrupt file. AND I could open it already.

Does anyone have any idea? I've already spent hours "repairing" these files without detecting any corrupted linked files. This is so annoying

Monika Gause

Community Expert

There is a general issue with Illustrator and files on servers.

For some people it still works but for others it doesn't

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alonag88578804

New Participant

Hey Monika,

I'm having the same issue with illustrator. I literally created an account yesterday, so all the apps are the latest version. The file we worked on yesterday can't be open today. Any advice on this?