P: Photoshop 23.0 - cannot open TIF files, generated in other programs

[jazz-y]

Starting from version 22.5.2 Photoshop stopped opening some tif files. The issue is related to a previously discovered vulnerability, the escalation of which, under certain conditions, may lead to arbitrary code execution - Adobe Security Bulletin.

Important: The problem is not with Photoshop, but with third-party software developers who do not keep track of current TIF specifications

A temporary solution to the problem is to convert files in third-party editors that completely update the structure of TIF files (for example, xnView, ImageMagik, etc.); such files can also be converted using the Camera Raw plug-in (via Bridge).

We all hope that Adobe can solve this problem and find a way to bring third-party files to modern standard. But I recommend that you independently contact the developers of programs whose files Photoshop cannot open. Notify them of the problem, recommend to contact @J453 using this community. Jeffrey can provide technical information to developers to solve this problem.

List of apps that have problems (according to your feedback):

• Affinity Photo (no feedback from users, is the problem fixed in 23.0.1)
• Deep Sky Stacker (no feedback from users, is the problem fixed in 23.0.1)
• Pixinxight (no feedback from users, is the problem fixed in 23.0.1)
• tiffs from Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs
• OrthoVista (a Trimble program)
• Photo from an iPhone saved as a TIFF in Apple Preview
• Ultramap, Vexcel Imaging software
• Agisoft Metashape

There are no problems (or solved):

• GIMP
• ACDSee Photo Studio Ultimate 2018 (solved in PS 23.0.1)
• ACDSee Pro Photo Studio  (solved in PS 23.0.1)
• Portrait Pro Studio Max 18 (solved in PS 23.0.1)
• X-rite i1Profiler (i1Publish) (solved in PS 23.0.1)
• ScanTailor (solved in PS 23.0.1)
• SNS-HDR (solved in PS 23.0.1)
• Capture One  (solved in PS 23.0.1)
• Starnet++ 1.1 (solved in PS 23.0.1)
• Deep Sky Stacker 4.2.6 (possibly depends of the file export settings)
• Acrobat DC
• PatchTool (BabelColor) - issue solved after communication with Adobe staff
• ImageMagik
• XnView 
• Blender
• World Creator 2
• Techsmith Snagit

[J453]

@Verto can you post a tiff you're still having trouble with?

[Kristen5D94]

It won't let me post a tiff because it's not a supported image type. Please excuse me while I go cry in frustration. 

[Ambress]

Thank you Adobe!  I can confirm that PS release 23.0.1 appears to have resolved the issue I saw with TIFFs from Starnet++.  They can now be opened.  Yippee!

[Kukurykus]

Oct 30, 2021

[simont57689994]

Hi Jeffrey, here is a WeTransfer link to one of the TIFF's from DEFRA. (LIDAR-DTM-1m-2020-TF63nw) The folder structure is what you recieve when you pick DTM as your download tile (from Defra Survey Data Download). I've let DEFRA know about the latest updates from you guys but haven't heard back yet... Thanks for keeping us posted! Simon.

[Kukurykus]

The issue is half fixed unless the rest problems to handle belong now to other software manufacturers 😉

[Verto]

@J453, thanks for your interest, but as I said before, after upgrading to version 23.01, I have no more problems with TIFF files.

Best regards

[Jan Lunddal Larsen-PRIVAT]

Hi,

In my testing i stumpled on what's probably an edge case, but a photo from an iPhone saved as a TIFF in Apple Preview (macOS 12.0.1) still won't open in PS23.0.1.

Actually it seems to be any TIFF saved from Apple Preview.

@Jeffrey Tranberry I've now tried converting using the lates Imagemagick, and what seems to be the problem, is when tile sizes are specified, Photoshop won't open the images.

[PECourtejoie]

Hi, the Photoshop team has just released version 23.0.1, one of the fixes adresses TIFF files opening, see: Fixed issues in Photoshop

In your CC application, go to Help>Search for updates if you do not see it yet.

Please report if it fixes your problem.

[akbiswal]

Hi! Yes, it has really solved the problem and it's a big relief. Thank you so much! 

[Stellar_gift16B8]

No luck opening tiffs generated from Ultramap, Vexcel Imaging software. This is software that processes imagery from Vexcel's large format digital aerial cameras. Files produced in the last year, which were previously accessable, cannot be opened with Photoshop 22.5.2 or 22.5.3, OS X Mojave, or 23.0.1, Windows 10. 

[GinaSalama]

Hi, can you also add Agisoft Metashape to the list of of apps that have problems . 

[jazz-y]

not solved in PS 23.0.1?

[GinaSalama]

no, unfortunately it has not been fixed in PS 23.0.1.

[Lumigraphics]

I suspect that in some cases, the third-party developer will have to fix their software. Adobe may not be able to handle all TIFFs out there in the wild.

[HPLHaverhill]

The third party software fix will not help us as the files were created by a vendor with software and equipment we do not have access to, and cannot regenerate. I can open TIFFs created by our inhouse scanner and TIFFs we had previously opened in older versions of Photoshop, but ones we have never opened before will not open. My question is if I use Bridge to open in RAW and then from there in Photoshop and save the TIFF that way, will it change anything as far as image quality goes? Is it just a matter of making the file recognizable to PS 23.0.1? We have over 30K files we would need to do this individually with. Also, we send these files to patrons and they may need to be able to open them as well in Photoshop.

[ivank11134774]

What about the TIFs created ~20 years ago by programs & companies that do not exist anymore? We used to use TIF as a loss-less "gold standard", but this apparently is not the case for the modern Photoshop. My take is to stay on PS 22.5.1 for now and look for alternative software.

[Lumigraphics]

If there is a security issue, Adobe is doing the responsible thing here. However, TIFF is an open standard and so hopefully there will be a safe workaround by vendors going forward.

[ivank11134774]

We have thousands of medical and laboratory images from microscopes and various instruments accumulated during last ~20 years (since digital imaging was introduced). Many programs from different vendors some of which do not exist at present. I checked randomly ~20 TIF files this morning, and at least half of them could not open. Am already tasked by management to look for a more appropriate than PS imaging software to work with these.

[Kukurykus]

Thanks to your other post (Photoshop 22.5.3: What's new?) I found you can install any version of release 22.

[Lumigraphics]

You presumably know about ImageJ?

https://imagej.net/

[HPLHaverhill]

I was finally able to open my TIF files with 22.5.1; 22.5.2 and 22.5.3 did not work.

[johngettler1]

I believe I have discovered a workaround solution:  Open Bridge 2022.  Go to Camera Raw Preferences.  Choose File Handling.  Under TIFF, choose Disable TIFF Support.  Now all TIF's should open fine in Photoshop 2022.

Somehow this Camera RAW processing path option is getting in the way of opening these certain files.  

[J453]

If you're still having trouble with TIFFs created/saved by software that's still being developed, please share the following information with them:

Photoshop’s TIFF parser had a buffer overrun security vulnerability in its synthesized calculation of the Image File Directory entry RowsPerStrip (278).

The fix for that was to reject TIFF files that did not provide the required RowsPerStrip (278) entry. Under the rationale that this IFD entry is required, as per the TIFF specification.

We have amended that behavior to calculate the RowsPerStrip (278) value when not provided, but only under the constraint that the calculation can be made with fidelity and not cause the security vulnerability in Photoshop 23.0.1.

That should help them to correct the problem with their TIFF export/save libraries.

If you have TIFFs that are older and the software is no longer being developed, we suggest you use the batch command in Photoshop 22.5.1 to open and resave trusted tiffs so that they will open in current and future versions of Photoshop.

[johngettler1]

The TIF files we can't open were saved with Photoshop 23.0.1.