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Kevin-Monahan
Community Manager
Kevin-MonahanCommunity Manager
Community Manager
March 30, 2011
Question

FAQ: The File Cannot Be Opened Because of a Header Error

  • March 30, 2011
  • 20 replies
  • 85318 views

Unable to import your image(s) to Premiere Pro? Does “The File Cannot Be Opened Because of a Header Error” pop up? Adobe Expert, Jens Trimmer, created an article and video containing fixes for the issue. Check these out.

 

Here's Jens' updated troubleshooting guide if you run into the error:

https://videowithjens.com/premiere-pro-the-file-cannot-be-opened-because-of-a-header-error/

 

Jens also made a video about it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtpyTbWZWJ8

 

20 replies

Show previous replies
S
soonerfitz
Participating Frequently
November 2, 2017

Hi. I'm running on Adobe PP 2017.0.2.

I can't get a TIFF image file to import.  Tried to rename it to a png.  The source that sent these to my dropbox sent 6 or 7 png's and they worked fine... but the 2 TIFF's he sent did not.

I don't have After Effects or Photoshop. I'm not sure what to do. 

M
Meg The Dog
Inspiring
November 3, 2017

Mac or PC?

MtD

S
soonerfitz
Participating Frequently
November 3, 2017

Mac 10.11.6 Desktop (2015)

RTHiggins
RTHiggins
Inspiring
October 21, 2017

Hi,

I am about to print on the latest feature I am editing and I cannot get this 5.1 wav file into Premiere! I get a dialogue that says "This file cannot be opened because of a header error."

I have referred to this article already to no avail - Header Error when importing Wav files

Please advise.

Thanks

Specs:

Yosemite 10.10.5

Mac Pro (Mid 2010)

2 x 3.48 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon

AMD Radeon HD 7950 3072 MB

128 Gigs of RAM

R
Richard M Knight
Community Expert
October 21, 2017

Can you share the file with us?

B
BuiltThisCityProductions
New Participant
October 6, 2017

When attempting to import an SRT file, I get the error: “This file cannot be opened because of a header error”

Anyone know a fix for this? Thanks

    kulpreet singh
    kulpreet singh
    Inspiring
    October 6, 2017

    Hi BuiltThisCityProductions,

    I am sorry that you are not able to import SRT files into Premiere Pro.

    Thanks,

    Kulpreet Singh

    ac_outdoor_productions
    ac_outdoor_productions
    New Participant
    April 4, 2017

    So I keep getting an error that reads:

    "This file cannot be opened because of a header error."

    Can anyone help me figure out what's wrong?

    Thanks

    John T Smith
    John T Smith
    Community Expert
    April 4, 2017

    Exactly what is INSIDE the video you are editing?

    Report back with the codec details of your file, use the programs below... A screen shot works well to SHOW people what you are doing - For Windows Internet Explorer press the PRINT SCREEN button on your keyboard, and then do CTRL-V to paste the screen print from the clipboard into a forum message

    Free programs to get file information for PC/Mac http://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo/Download POST IN TREE VIEW

    Rakunio
    Rakunio
    New Participant
    March 13, 2017

    Was recording some gameplay for my channel in OBS, as soon as I saw the drive drop to KBS I did the smart thing and disk cleaned up and began re recording, now I have and unopenable 82.7 GB file and an openable 946MB file, really don't want to find out this file is garbage now after like7-8 hours of gameplay, tried opening with VLC player and Handbrake and neither want to open it.

    Kevin-Monahan
    Community Manager
    Kevin-MonahanCommunity ManagerAuthor
    Community Manager
    March 14, 2017

    Hi OnePerson,

    Sorry for your problems related to capturing and saving streams. It sounds like Premiere Pro CS6 generated an error dialog box related to your file. My guess is that this is variable frame rate footage. If so, it is not supported in Premiere Pro. Try transcoding it to Handbrake first, then report back. Let us know if you are still getting the same error.

    Thanks,
    Kevin

    Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio
    Rakunio
    Rakunio
    New Participant
    March 14, 2017

    Handbrake isn't allowing the file in.

    neilb73198979
    neilb73198979
    New Participant
    December 14, 2016

    I edited a short film in Premiere.  In order to make a DCP I exported the picture as a jpeg sequence.  I wanted to put it back into Premiere so I could watch it and make sure there are no problems, but when I try to import it I get the following error message:  The file cannot be opened because of a header error.

    Elsewhere I have seen the advice to import the jpegs into photoshop and re export them, but I have over 12000 of them, so this isnt a great solution.

    Anyone know what is going on?

    K
    kinkersnick127
    Inspiring
    September 21, 2013

    Hey,

    I've created some subtitles and exported them as XML using Jubler (Mac app) which is a format Premiere CC is supposed to accept.

    But when I try to import, I get the following error:

    The importer reported a generic error.

    I've strippped the file down to just one subtitle to see if it works, and still doesn't. The code of the file is this:

    <tt xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2006/10/ttaf1">

      <body>

        <div xml:id="captions">

          <p begin="00:02:09.730" end="00:02:16.440">This is an example subtitle</p>

        </div>

      </body>

    </tt>

    Anyone got any ideas?

    Also, if I export an .stl fro Jubler (another format Premiere CC is also supposed to accept), then I get this error:

    The file cannot be opened because of a header error.

    Doing subtitles in CC seems to be either clunky as hell (making them inside the app itself) or impossible to import.

    Help!

    S

    D
    DigitalSoju
    Known Participant
    March 27, 2017

    I've been using Subtitle edit and the export to Final Cut Pro xml and whenever premiere reads the xml file, it reads it wrong (or the program is exporting it wrong). 29.97 always gets imported as 29 fps and 23.97 as 23 fps. It's been a huge pain because as the time length of the video goes on, the timing gets more thrown off. I've recorded a video through camtasia and showed the program developer the problem. But if it's a problem on Adobe's end, then I guess we're screwed unless Adobe sees it.

    B
    bcarl222
    New Participant
    February 8, 2013

    When I imported .avi video file into Premiere Pro CS6, only the audio played. I used VLC to convert the .avi file to .mp4 through a batch file. Now when I try to open the .mp4 file into Premiere Pro CS6, I receive an error "File cannot be opened because of a header error".

    I've tried converting the .avi file to .mov and .wav but they receive the same header error.

    I've also tried opening in Audition and resaving it as .wav pc but it still won't import to Premiere.

    John T Smith
    John T Smith
    Community Expert
    February 8, 2013

    First, depending on what is inside the AVI file, it should/might be "naturally" supported by Premiere

    Read Bill Hunt on a file type as WRAPPER http://forums.adobe.com/thread/440037

    What is a CODEC... a Primer http://forums.adobe.com/thread/546811

    What CODEC is INSIDE that file? http://forums.adobe.com/thread/440037

    .

    Report back with the codec details of your file, use the programs below... a screen shot works well to SHOW people what you are doing

    http://forums.adobe.com/thread/592070?tstart=30

    .

    For PC http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en or http://www.headbands.com/gspot/

    For Mac http://mediainspector.massanti.com/

    Also, for the future when you post...

    More information needed for someone to help... please click these links and provide the requested information

    -Information FAQ http://forums.adobe.com/message/4200840

    -Effective questions http://forums.adobe.com/thread/416679

    -How to get help quickly http://forums.adobe.com/thread/419406

    A
    andrewcopper
    New Participant
    January 27, 2013

    The problem I'm experiencing is that Premiere CS6 will not import my Wav audio files. When I try to import them it gives the following message and fails to import the file:

    "The file cannot be opened because of a header error".

    The original audio file, which opened happily in FCP 7 (I'm migrating the project to Premiere from a previous Final Cut Pro project) is in the following format (as described in the Movie Inspector of QuickTime Player):

    Linear PCM

    16 bit little-endian signed integer

    2 channels

    48000 Hz

    Although the files won't open in Premiere, they will open in Adobe Audition, which gives their bit depth as 32 (it also describes the original format as "16 bit little-endian" - I confess that this technical side of sound files is unclear to me).

    Any suggestions of how I can coax Premiere into importing and opening these files?

    Thanks, Andrew

    the_wine_snob
    the_wine_snob
    Inspiring
    January 27, 2013

    Perhaps some of the suggestions in this thread: http://forums.adobe.com/message/4713932#4713932 will be helpful?

    Good luck,

    Hunt

    A
    Anonymous
    March 30, 2011

    Hello,

    When trying to import images I receive the error message: The file cannot be opened because of a header error

    - I´m using PrPro CS5

    - Import file format .jpg

    I have upgraded to CS5 from CS4, converted the sequence. It worked just fine in CS4.

    Can anyone help?

    Thanks,

    Karl

      Jeff Bellune
      Jeff Bellune
      Brainiac
      March 30, 2011

      Welcome to the forum.

      Try to open the image file in Photoshop (if you have it) and then re-save it.  Don't make any changes, just re-save.

      -Jeff

        A
        Anonymous
        March 30, 2011

        Hi Jeff,

        Thank you for your reply.

        Unfortunately, I get a similar issue when trying to open the image with photoshop, that is, it won´t open stating that the jpg has an unknown marker?

        Thanks for your help!

        Karl

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