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

[caseyb77358809]

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?

[Cyanlab]

Hello, i tried this but im getting the same problem. 

thank you! 

[Neerlc]

Thank you!  It worked for me 🙂

[jonp36984371]

Was getting the same error and this fixed it for me, thanks!!

[Laura Crane]

BRILLLLIANT! THANK YOU!!

[samanthah18610332]

mate you just literally saved my day! thank you so much for posting this answer, it worked a treat! 

[KathyWestStudios]

This did the trick. Really annoying to have a new app and immediately have to spend all this time "repairing" a newly built file. Maybe add some instructions to the download?

[juliem18359647]

Thanks for the workaround and for the willingness to try to fix it in future. It should, however, be noted that this is a longstanding problem and has been for more than a decade. Even the workarounds are always changing with the version. I wish the embedding just 'worked'. All the time. I've learned to just vectorize pictures where possible just so as not to have broken links to rasterized versions at some point in future.

[Preeti_Singh0850]

this is really work?

[Guest]

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.

[midman_george]

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]

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

[braswels]

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.  

[forresttw97892848]

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

[STARK NOID]

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

[Raheel5FD0]

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

[Senol5C39]

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.

[francoiskroll]

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.

[francoiskroll]

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

[abdallahh70846850]

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.