Not able to open CS2 file in Illustrator CC version

[chrispelley]

Can a file create 15 years ago in Illustrator CS2 be opened in Illustrator CC today? 

(Moving to the Illustrator forum from get started)

{Renamed by MOD}

[Just Shoot Me]

Although I don't work with Illustrator at all I don't see why you would have a problem.

At the worst the new version of Illustrator might want to Upgrade the files to one that would work better with the newer version. Like MS did with Word and excel files. 

The only problem with that is if you were going to Share that file with someone that was running the very old version of the program.

[Luke Jennings]

Probably. You may need fonts or links that might have been used with the original file. Save it to a new name as .ai or .pdf. The document raster effects settings might be 72 ppi, you should change it to 300. In the unlikely event it won't open, or fonts & Links are missing, try opening it Acrobat (to salvage it).

[chrispelley]

I continue to get "The file is in an unknown format and cannot be opened" with every variation I try. I can add the .jpg extension to it and it will open a tiny thumbnail of what it is. Thank you for your help.

[Monika Gause]

Absolutely. I'm opening those old files all the time.

[Luke Jennings]

What is the original extension on the file? If .eps, it might be from Photoshop.

If you open it in Acrobat and go to File> Properties> Description, it might show the original software that created it.

[chrispelley]

It was originally Illustrator document. Changing the extension to eps gives me the same error as well as trying the open in acrobat. It's a possiblity it got damaged somehow.

[Larry G. Schneider]

Have you tried making a new document and then File>Place?

[Ashutosh_Mishra]

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out. As others mentioned earlier, CS2 file should have no issues while opening in CC version.
Is it possible to share the file? If yes, please upload it to the cloud and share the link with us.

Regards,

Ashutosh

[chrispelley]

Thank You for the replies everyone. I tried everyone's ideas with no sucess. I was able to recreate pretty close to the original from the small thumbnail I created. Thank you agian. 

[jacobr27848820]

Hi Chris. I've had the same issue. I managed to work around it by simply adding the file extension .eps to the end of the file while in the finder, then it opens just fine.

—JR

[Monika Gause]

This thread is 4 years old - let's hope the problem is solved by now.

Apart from that you can perfectly open CS2 files in newer versions, no voodoo needed. And certainly no EPS voodoo. And btw: the thread opener already wrote that the EPS voodoo didn't help them.

[Bobby Henderson]

I've opened Illustrator AI files made 30 years ago successfully in Illustrator CC. As long as the files aren't corrupted they should open just fine (with the exception of live type set in obsolete font formats). Illustrator is better at opening really old files than rival vector graphics applications such as CorelDRAW.