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johnh82879062
Participant
January 23, 2018
Answered

InDesign error - "Cannot open <file name>"

  • January 23, 2018
  • 2 replies
  • 5276 views

Greetings,

I'm assisting someone in our company who is getting an error 'Cannot open <filename.indd>' when opening two particular indd files. Other files open fine. Same error when opened on another computer.

CC Indesign 2018 is being used to open the files. The person believes the 2016 version was used to create them. They were both stored on network drives. No other versions of the files exist.

Any assistance is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Mary1957

    When I get this error, which is quite often since the last update, I close and relaunch InDesign and, almost every time, the file is OK and opens without a problem. You might also consider uninstalling ID and reinstalling it. Best of luck.


    Thank you. I almost had a heart attack when the error message popped up. All my work suddenly disappearing! But I closed the program and restarted and the file opened fine. Whew!!!!

    2 replies

    Jongware
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 23, 2018

    Run the script in Re: [Ann] Identify Your InDesign File

    If the file is from a very new version, it may not be able to pin-point the exact version number, but if it is not an InDesign file it will still be able to tell you.

    Common problems, by the way, are that someone "saved" a PDF or IDML file and named it as ".indd".

    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 23, 2018

    Try open as a copy.

    johnh82879062
    Participant
    January 23, 2018

    I tried copying it and also renaming it, but same error. Is that what you mean?

    BobLevine
    Community Expert
    Community Expert
    January 23, 2018

    No.

    Under the file > open menu you can choose to open the file as a copy.