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leonardgren
leonardgren
Participant
August 24, 2020
Question

Error opening .TIF files.

  • August 24, 2020
  • 3 replies
  • 1063 views
Hello!

I have a problem with .TIF files and am looking for a solution.

Last Friday, like many other times, I was sitting in Lightroom processing about twenty color photos [raw files; .CR2 from my Canon 5DsR]. I then opened these files in Photoshop, added some layer adjustments that made the images black and white, and then saved all the files as .TIF files. I then batch converted copies of all my .TIF files to flattened .TIF files that I could send to my friend. I of course saved my original .TIF files with all the original layers and layer adjustments.

Today I tried to open my original (none flattened) .TIF files and Photoshop replies:

"Could not open" _K5A3602.tif "because the file is not compatible with this version of Photoshop.".

Very strange because I could without any problem open the files last Friday when I sat with them. Thus tested to open the original .TIF files in IrfanView = no problem. There were neither any problem to open them in the GIMP or Windows 10 gallery or even Paint. But what I really need to access are my layers in the original .TIF files which does not appear in any of the mentioned applications, not even if I re-save the files as new .TIF files or other file formats.

So, is there perhaps anyone else who has had similar problems and possibly any solution or tips what I can try to do? Maybe you know some kind of appication that can extract layers from a .TIF files? I myslef tried updating Photoshop to the latest version and it did not help either, even tried opening the original .TIF files on another computer in Photoshop which gave the same error message.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

Best Regards,
Leonard Gren
This topic has been closed for replies.

3 replies

Jake7732
Jake7732
Inspiring
September 9, 2020

I have one user who is having this same problem. (the other 4 users have no issues)

Manually doing a File>Save As, saving as TIF (any options) then closing and reopening the TIF results in a cannot read TIF file error.

Its about 50/50 that the TIF will be saved incorrectly due to something in photoshop that we cannot pinpoint. 

 

Windows 10 Pro

i7-9700

32GB Ram

Radeon R9 360

 

 

Cute James
Cute James
Inspiring
November 10, 2020

Hello, is there any new information regarding this issue?

 

I recently encountered the same problem:

- Open a Photoshop saved TIFF file with multiple layers, make some minor edits then resave.

--> now the file can no longer be opened in PS.

 

Fortunately I was able to restore a previous version of the file from an undelete folder on our files server, however I obviously don't wish to have to rely on this in the advent that PS corrupts my data.

 

I'm currently using PS2020, but am about to update to PS2021 to see if this resolve the issue.

c.pfaffenbichler
Community Expert
c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
Community Expert
August 24, 2020

Can you provide one of the presumably layered tif files and the corresponding flattened one? 

What are the files’ sizes in comparison and do they support the assumption that the one group contains Layers? 

leonardgren
leonardgrenAuthor
Participant
August 24, 2020

Thank you for showing interest in my problem.

Here is the .TIF file with layers which Photoshop can't open; 8bit, AdobeRGB, 300 dpi = 215 MB
(As mentioned, other applications can open this file without any problem, such as IrfanView and GIMP, but they don't show any layers, which is what I need.)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dm72nevj9tk6fom/original_K5A3602.tif?dl=0

And here is a copy of the .TIF file which I flattened from the original .TIF file before there was any problem opening it; 8bit, AdobeRGB, 300 dpi = 55 MB
https://www.dropbox.com/s/1inujhjhwcg9wlh/flattened_K5A3602.tif?dl=0

Thank you very much for looking into this, I really appreciate any help I can get.

    c.pfaffenbichler
    Community Expert
    c.pfaffenbichlerCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    September 10, 2020

    Sorry, I had overlooked your post. 

    Thanks for the files but I could not get out any of the individual layers, either. 

     

    There is a small section starting with »Customers have suggested these recovery utilities« on this page

    https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/file-recovery-photoshop.html

    but the apps mentioned there seem to refer to psd and psb specifically. 

    There are other psd-recovery-tools available, but I have no experience with them and don’t know whether they would also be able to process tif. 

    josephlavine
    Community Expert
    josephlavineCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    August 24, 2020

    Leonard-

    This sounds rather odd and not something that I have heard of. It might be helpful to others if you can share details about your operating system. And to confirm, you are up to date on the latest version of Photoshop.

    Warmly/j

    leonardgren
    leonardgrenAuthor
    Participant
    August 24, 2020

    Thank you for your reply Joseph, here is information about my operating system:

    • PC
    • Windows 10 Home (latest version, fully updated)
    • Intel Core i7-6700K CPU @ 4.00Ghz
    • 32 GB RAM
    • Latest version of Photoshop CC [21.2.2 Release]
    • Latest version of Lightroom Classic [9.4 Release Camera Raw 12.4]
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