Error message - "not the right kind of document"

[Cameo Skager]

I had this problem in CS3 and recently upgraded to CS5, hoping it would go away. It wasn't a problem for about a month, now it is back.

I download a .jpg picture, edit it, save it as a TIF file. I come back later to open the file and get this message:

"Could not complete your request because it is not the right kind of document."

It's a TIF file and should be able to be opened by Photoshop. What's going on?

In CS3, when I got this error, I would hunt around until I found a TIF file that would open - old picture - then I would go back and try to open the one with the error and it would open. What the heck is going on with this?

[Chris Cox]

Most likely you put the wrong file extension on the file, and it is not really a TIFF file, but some other format.

[Cameo Skager]

No, I purchased the photo from a stock photo site as a .jpg. I opened it in Photoshop, edited it and saved it as TIF file. I did not put a file extension on it; I saved it as a TIF using Photoshop.

[Zeno Bokor]

If the name of the file that you want to save has dots in it (".") and you don't specifically put the extension at the end, Windows will usually assume that the stuff after the dot is the extension. If this is the case then all you have to do is rename the file and add ".TIF" at the end.

[Cameo Skager]

No, this is not the case. The name of the file is choices_1. It was a .jpg and I saved it as a .tif in Photoshop. The extension is .tif.

Also, going to the file and trying to do an Open with does not work either.

I just got a brand new computer and loaded CS5 within the last month. I am very angry that I am getting this same error message I was having before right away on a new machine with new software.

[Chris Cox]

If you got the error you reported, then either you have a really bad hard disk, or the file is not a TIFF.

[aquaphx]

SOLUTION:

I have had similar issues.  I am not sure what is wrong with the graphics file because although my first guess is that the file is not a TIFF, due to other considerations such as you mentioned I am inclined to think it is another issue.

My best educated guess (electronics, computer, IT, graphics & Design career backgrounds) is that the file was not formatted correctly by the firmware/software that created it.  In my case it is an HP printer that scanned to TIFF.

My solution was to open it up in another program such as MS Paint/Paint 3D/etc.... and save as png.  Then I open it in photoshop and do what I want.

Hope this solution helps others since I fear it is likely too late for Cameo.

Cameo Skager​

[msohnius]

It is indeed probably about 8 years too late for "Cameo"!

I also have this issue every now and then on CS6 and never found the root cause of it.  In my case, once PS has gone into this particular funk, it won't open anything, not even a .psd file written a few minutes earlier by the very same Photoshop session!  No other program involved.  Eventually, the problem seems to disappear. I'll keep searching for an explanation.

I did, however, find a work-around: 

Using "Open as ..." from the "File" menu instead of a plain "Open" always works.  Presumably this circumvents the piece of code that is supposed to recognise the file type and for some reason occasinally fails.

[Francesco261195030pfl]

... and after 4 more additional years thnaks msohnius. That's the solution!