Adobe Suite 'Can’t open this file' Error Fix

Quick Answer

Hold Ctrl+Alt+Shift (Windows) or Cmd+Option+Shift (Mac) while launching the app, then click Yes to reset preferences. This fixes 8 out of 10 cases.

I’ve dealt with this error across Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign for years. The full text is usually something like “Can’t open this file because something went wrong” or just a generic “Error 1”. Most people think it’s a file corruption issue — it’s not. The real culprit is almost always corrupt user preferences or a GPU driver that doesn’t play nice with Adobe’s rendering engine. Adobe’s apps cache settings in a config file, and when that file gets borked — say, after a power failure or a forced quit — the app can’t parse the file header correctly. You’ll see it most often after a Windows update or an Adobe Creative Cloud update that didn’t clean up properly.

Step-by-Step Fix

1. Close all Adobe apps. Use Task Manager (Win) or Force Quit (Mac) if necessary. Don’t skip this — background processes can lock preference files.
2. Launch the app while holding the reset key combination. For Windows, hold Ctrl + Alt + Shift. For Mac, hold Cmd + Option + Shift. Keep holding until you see a dialog box asking if you want to delete the Adobe Photoshop (or Illustrator/InDesign) Settings File. Click Yes.
3. Check if the file opens now. If it does, you’re done. If not, move to the next step.
4. Update your GPU driver. Go to your GPU manufacturer’s site — NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel. Don’t use Windows Update for this; it often gives you older “WHQL” drivers that Adobe hates. Download the latest Studio driver (not Game Ready) for NVIDIA, or the latest Adrenalin driver for AMD. Reboot after installing.
5. Disable GPU acceleration temporarily. Launch the app (you might need to reset prefs again if you already did), then go to Edit > Preferences > Performance (Photoshop) or Preferences > GPU Performance (Illustrator). Uncheck Use Graphics Processor. Restart the app and try opening the file.

If the Main Fix Fails

Sometimes the preference reset doesn’t stick because the app is still using a corrupt cache. Try these:

• Manually delete the preferences folder. On Windows, it’s in %APPDATA%\Adobe\[App Name]\[Version]\. Look for folders named Adobe [App Name] Prefs and delete them. On Mac, check ~/Library/Preferences/ and ~/Library/Caches/. Back up the folder first, just in case.
• Run the Adobe Cleaner Tool. Download it from Adobe’s site. It nukes leftover preference files and temporary data. Reinstall the app from Creative Cloud after running it.
• Create a new user profile on your OS. This isolates any system-level corruption. If the file opens under a fresh profile, you’ve got a Windows profile issue, not an Adobe issue. Migrate your data and ditch the old profile.

Prevention Tip

Stop force-quitting Adobe apps. It’s the number one cause of preference corruption. Always use File > Quit or the Exit option in the app menu. Also, set Creative Cloud to Automatically keep apps up to date — but only after you’ve checked the release notes for known issues. Adobe’s QA isn’t perfect, so wait a week after a major update before letting it roll out. If you’re on a shared computer, set preferences to store on a network drive or use Adobe’s cloud-based preferences sync. That way, a single user’s mess doesn’t mess you up.

One last thing: if you’re opening a file from a network drive or USB stick, copy it to the local drive first. Adobe apps sometimes choke on slow or interrupted I/O and blame the file format. Copy, open, and save locally — that’s saved me hours of head-scratching.