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Photoshop CS3 Can't Open Files

Last answer on Oct 21, 2009 7:34:29 pm BST Nikky28, on Feb 20, 2008 8:27:24 am GMT 
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Hi everyone!

I'm pretty new to this kind of site and forum and in desperate need of help…

I edit images in Photoshop CS3, until last night every function performed beautifully... Here is my problem, step by step:

I launch Photoshop CS3 successfully
I click “File”
I then click “Open”

The open windows pops up for a sec but then immediately closes! I don’t even have time to see my files in the window, and of course to select anything!)

The Photoshop CS3 title bar then "mutes" and I can’t make it active again
and just have to shut down Photoshop and restart it again.

The weird thing is that the other commands (New, Browse, etc.) work properly!

I'm a graphist designer and I'm used to work with Photoshop a lot, so this is a very serious issue for me. If there's anyone out there who can keep me from becoming really crazy with this issue, I would really appreciate.

Thanks.

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1

JudySis, on Feb 20, 2008 5:29:06 pm GMT
  • +1

Hello,

I can think to several solutions to solve your Photoshop problem.

First, how did you set up your scratch disk? Did you put it on a separate drive than the one of the windows scratch disk? You'd need two different physical drives to do this, so if you only have one, then don't worry about it.

Also, how many fonts do you have loaded into windows? This might impacts Photshop too.

You can try trashing your preferences first (hold down ctrl, alt and shift when you start Photoshop) and see if that helps.

HERE's a link to some useful information from the Adobe website (http://www.adobeforums.com/webx/.ef4a07f)

Hope one of these solutions will work for you!

Let's keep in touch.

   
Reply to JudySis

2

crazy_devil, on Mar 15, 2008 7:32:06 pm GMT
  • +7

I hope its not a cracked version that can retreive updates from the site.. It will get corrupted automatically...

   
Reply to crazy_devil

3

kevin, on Apr 17, 2008 11:26:52 pm BST
  • +1

I'm running into this EXACT issue. I have a non-cracked version of Photoshop CS3 Extended.

I just installed it at the beginning of the week, and it was running perfectly until yesterday evening. Now it doesn't let the open file dialog box open. (Well, it pops up then disappears just as described above.)

I have it installed on the same drive as Windows, I don't have too many fonts installed, and trashing my preferences doesn't fix the problem.

Any other guesses?

Thanks for the help!

   
Reply to kevin

4

Kazeohin, on Apr 27, 2008 8:42:00 am BST

I'm getting this issue as well, please help!

   
Reply to Kazeohin

5

Mike, on May 5, 2008 6:43:26 am BST

Did anyone try contacting Adobe....Or Microsoft? I know it can be painful trying to contact a large company....I just bought Photoshop cs3 last week and have no problems. I hope I dont run into this type problem.. I wish you all the best. Mike/ezdate123

   
Reply to Mike

6

Dan, on May 7, 2008 2:01:45 am BST
  • +1

There is an article on Adobe about this.

My solution was to create a new user account. It has something to do with your settings going corrupt when incorrectly shutting photoshop down

   
Reply to Dan

21

Don, on Jul 15, 2008 6:36:43 am BST

Any other ideas?

I have tried every solution I cound find on the web and I still get the same error when trying to open a file?

I thought microsoft was bad for bugs - ADOBE is far worse!

I sure as hell hope that ADOBE doesn't try writing an operating system!

FEDUP

   
Reply to Don

7

mrslash, on May 7, 2008 4:49:22 pm BST

Hi, is it a full version of cs3?

   
Reply to mrslash

8

noir, on May 11, 2008 4:49:22 am BST

All you need to do is create a new account in the control panel and your photoshop will function normally

   
Reply to noir

37

larock56, on Oct 7, 2008 3:42:12 pm BST

Just create a new account? How do you transfer all your data from one account to the new account?

   
Reply to larock56

10

gyruhd, on May 20, 2008 6:40:52 pm BST
  • +1

I had the same issue - per adobe it has to do with the dialouge opening in a place where it was previous -- this would be unavalable under certain conditions as it is restoring it to the previous - now unavailable - location. Mine was missing cause I had swapped the window to screen 2 in my setup - then returned it -- it can also happen if you change reolutins and the window is opening out of screen --- up the res and find the window and return it

   
Reply to gyruhd

11

bellie, on May 28, 2008 4:55:58 am BST
  • +3

Same here, I have just installed the adobe creative suite 3 master collection, and am not able to choose photoshop Cs3 extended, as the default program, nor does it allow me to open the files from abode bridge or use photoshop to edit from dreamweaver...does anyone have any advice? and by the way I am running off of Vista Home edition...

   
Reply to bellie

48

Jinnie, on Nov 4, 2008 10:31:31 pm GMT
  • +6

I had the same problem

in my case it was a microsoft security issue
i had to do the following:

1. go to your photoshop programs folder (i.e. C:\Program Files (x86)\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS3)
2. right click on photoshop.exe and click properties
3. go to the compatibility tab and checkmark 'run this program as an administrator"
4. go to the security tab and click on the advanced button at the bottom
5. select your login name and select edit, check mark 'allow' for everything
6. i had to uncheckmark 'include inheritable permissions from this object's parent' and hit 'remove' when the dialog popped up.

after that photoshop was working properly for me.

   
Reply to Jinnie

83

jAY, on Oct 15, 2009 11:21:31 pm BST

Hi, im jordan.
umm i got this Program from my brother he gave it to me through yahoo messager and i downloaded great nothing wrong, until i open it up and then the screen come up then it just go off. idk whats wrong wit it but i need help HELP!! ME!!!

   
Reply to jAY

13

oshimagun, on Jun 6, 2008 3:03:14 pm BST
  • +21

I had a co-worker with this problem and it was solved by doing this:

-press ESC after attempting to open a file
-pressing CTRL+SHIFT+S (save-as) supposedly resizes the window to it's default size.

Let me know if that works or not. This is just what I heard.

   
Reply to oshimagun

14

Antonio, on Jun 9, 2008 9:49:08 am BST
  • +1

Yes, it worked!!!!
Thank you oshimagun.
Only deleting preference file didnt work.

   
Reply to Antonio

17

Emily, on Jun 19, 2008 2:59:10 pm BST
  • +3

AHH! This has worked for me!! I have been searching online for about an hour and finally found a solution to my problem! I had tried "trashing" preferences but that was not the solution. THANK YOU SO MUCH!

   
Reply to Emily

44

John, on Oct 23, 2008 6:11:05 pm BST
  • +1

How did you get this to work i cannot open files photoshop please help ?

   
Reply to John

18

Tany, on Jul 3, 2008 7:22:59 am BST

Hmm, interesting.

I have a similar prob, which is very annoying, I had it in CS and now in CS3 Extended.

When I use the 'Open as' command, I get:
"Could not complete your request because it is not a valid Photoshop document" (yet it's a JPG) - works ok if I just usen File >Open.

When I try and shut/close down the file/program, I get:
"Could not complete the Close command becuase there is not enough memory (RAM)" Yet I have 1GB.

Any clues?

   
Reply to Tany

81

Saxmancat, on Jul 8, 2009 4:28:13 am BST
  • +1

When you go to open a file as, the first option is a psd file and if you dont change this to something like camera raw then you will get the message that its not a valid file format. i presume you were trying to open the file as a camera raw file

   
Reply to Saxmancat

30

Maddie, on Aug 9, 2008 10:55:17 pm BST
  • +1

Thank you so much, I was having this exact problem, and now it's solved!!!!!!

   
Reply to Maddie

31

eugrad06, on Sep 6, 2008 10:15:06 pm BST

WOW that worked. I was ready to kill this computer. Thanks

   
Reply to eugrad06

33

lettyk, on Sep 18, 2008 2:18:01 pm BST

Wow, that worked for me too! Thanks you just saved me hours of uninstalling and installing the suite.

   
Reply to lettyk

49

gsh, on Nov 9, 2008 8:35:16 pm GMT

Thank you thank you for solving this problem for me! It's been making me crazy. I am very greatful.

   
Reply to gsh

51

Alger9, on Nov 24, 2008 4:23:09 am GMT

Thank you Oshi! I've had the same problem--tried many workarounds, and yours worked!

   
Reply to Alger9

52

kemmen, on Nov 25, 2008 2:39:33 pm GMT

THANKS! this worked for me! love you, you saved me an uninstall/reinstall!

   
Reply to kemmen

60

Leslie, on Dec 29, 2008 7:56:38 pm GMT

Thanks so much for the advice. I was having the same problem as everyone else here, and hitting Esc, then Ctrl+Shift+S did the trick.

Leslie

   
Reply to Leslie

67

emmyfish, on Feb 10, 2009 1:31:47 pm GMT

Just wanted to chime in and thank you for posting this - this saved me potentially hours of trying to figure out what went wrong. It worked beautifully.

   
Reply to emmyfish

71

Miya, on Apr 8, 2009 10:26:48 am BST

Wowwww..its work..i become badmood because of that..arigatou..TQ

   
Reply to Miya

73

Steph, on Apr 16, 2009 8:03:05 pm BST

Oshimagun, on Friday June 6, 2008 03:03:14 PM wrote:

I had a co-worker with this problem and it was solved by doing this:

-press ESC after attempting to open a file
-pressing CTRL+SHIFT+S (save-as) supposedly resizes the window to it's default size.

Let me know if that works or not. This is just what I heard.

-------------
I had a similar problem oshimagun where I couldn't save as... The save as screen would quickly pop up then dissapear. Your trick did the job!

   
Reply to Steph

74

shoppingstrip, on Apr 22, 2009 2:35:30 pm BST

Oshimagun - you are a champ....such a simple solution to such a BIG problem. You are a life saver. Thank you!

   
Reply to shoppingstrip

75

Starhelm, on Apr 23, 2009 4:19:45 pm BST

Hey it worked for me too! We had the problem in CS3 and fixed it by upgrading to CS4. But the problem returned in CS4, and this solution fixed it!

Well done!

Starhelm

   
Reply to Starhelm

77

Sue, on May 1, 2009 6:27:25 pm BST

This worked great, thank you so much

   
Reply to Sue

15

Dale, on Jun 15, 2008 10:53:55 pm BST
  • +2

Hi, Im new to this help and advise site. I bought "CS3 Creative Suite-Standard Edition". I started to get error message with CS3, For a whole week I phone Adobe technical support dept and tried to get help, but all in vein, no email address for support either. I deactivated the programs 1st and than I uninstall it from control panel. I still could not re-installed CS3. there was no setup exe file. Last way out, I format my hard drive, install XP.

This time I manage to install CS3. Only problem is I cannot open "Photoshop program". The error message is as follow:

"The specified module could not be found. C/program files/commonfiles/Adobe Version Cue CS3/Client?3.0,0/VersionCueUI.DLL" After pressing enter the followwing errror message comes up:
The instruction at "0x5ad71531" referenced memory at "0x00000014". The memory could not be "read, click on "OK" to terminate the program.

Im busy with my graphic design course and I really, really need to have my CS3 up and running.

Please, THIS is my only help.

Your help and advised will be appreciated. thank you inadvanced.

-Dale

   
Reply to Dale

16

jazz, on Jun 16, 2008 6:45:20 pm BST

Hello, i am a graphic designer..and like everyone else. having problems with photoshop CS3.

It started randomly a few weeks ago or so, and i cant find out the problem, id open photoshop, go to open a new file.click on the file, and as soon as it is suppose to open a command error box comes up saying that no photoshop files can be opend because there is to many files open at once.

but theres none at all.
After this box is closed..i cannot close photoshop...x out ur even CTRL ALT DEL out..i litrally have to restart the whole pc

its becoming a very serious issue as i need it for my work and do not expect to have to sit and spend the time creating a new account or reloading the software all over again when i havent had it that long.

this is a fault that needs to be fixed from design softwares.
there valuable..and important..and luckily i have not lost work from it.

although this is affecting my buisness and am finding it difficult or impossible to work from home at all.

what is the solution? Please tell me u have one!!

   
Reply to jazz

32

spazz, on Sep 15, 2008 7:49:48 am BST

Jazz i think i am in a very similar position as you, i run a graphics forum. i am the only artist. And photoshop cs3 will allow me to open a file, but when i go to save. the screen comes up briefly than disappears. Than its locked up, but with me i can still take snag it and capture the photo...but i cant do this everytime. Did i press something wrong, did u find a solution. i've tried reinstalling, rebooting, safe mode, preference clean, i tried the control shift s thing nothing...

   
Reply to spazz

19

mikey, on Jul 12, 2008 6:40:24 pm BST

I purchased cs3 on disk, loaded it up no problem it works fine, then we realised that we needed to use cs3 extended for some of the extras for stitching large tiff files, so we purchased the upgrade from adobe, tried downloading it. All we get is cs3 downloading and not the extended version. We have deleted photoshop cs3 as advised by adobe,and then tried downloading cs3 extended from the website, no joy.

Does anyone have any suggestions? We know it is fairly easy to download cs3 extended from other sources but that really would cause major problems for us if we had illegal copies on our computer etc, does anyone have an answer please.

Either way many thanks.

   
Reply to mikey

20

Don, on Jul 15, 2008 4:55:11 am BST

I have the EXACT same problem on my laptop. I have CS3 installed on my desktop (that was a pain - took a lot of screwing around to get it to work) - I then installed it on my laptop and still can't get it to work. The first error was something about licensing - I found a solution - now I can't open files - I am getting the same error as you. I will be calling ADOBE tomorrow. If anyone has a solution, please post

Don

   
Reply to Don

22

Tany, on Jul 15, 2008 7:23:48 am BST

Hi,
Well after all the pain in the neck...I decided to format my hard drive and did a re-install. So far adobe CS3 is not giving me any trouble...and does works wonders!

There isn't enough info out there yet, so if you have the time and knowledge I would re-install it on a fresh hard drive.

That's what worked for me.

   
Reply to Tany

28

LyndieLou, on Aug 2, 2008 11:19:39 pm BST

Thank you to everyone for your posts. Adobe should be paying you for performing the technical support that they can't seem to offer.

In any case, I just started having this problem about three hours ago. I was happily editing some photos today and PhotoShop CS3 just froze. From that point forward File > Open caused quick screen flash and then basically PS crashed (except that it stayed open and I had to force close). I have been looking for any and all information I can find and have tried everything short of re-formatting. Nothing worked until I saw the post about creating a new user account and that resolved the problem. It's a bit of a pain having to set certain things up again, but look at the bright side, if your desktop is really cluttered, you can start fresh under your new user account! I hope this works for others.

I also saw this tip on another site: Try this-open up windows explorer (short cut is the windows key and "E"). Minimize it. Now, open up PS and maximize it (so it takes up your entire screen). Go back to windows explorer, and make it so that it takes up maybe a quarter of your screen. Find a photo in windows explorer and with your left mouse button, click and hold, then drag it over the background of photoshop and release the left mouse button. This is another shortcut for opening in PS. So if you don't mind drag and drop, this might be a decent workaround.

Good luck and thanks again for your helpful advice.

   
Reply to LyndieLou

42

kunwar, on Oct 18, 2008 10:28:28 pm BST
  • +1

Hi guys apparently the issue is very simple to solve. it is happening because the saving dialog box is not in the same screen. to fix this issue what you need to do is. open photoshop. press CTRL + O. move the open dialog box to the side which is comfortable for you then open a file . peess CTRL + SHIFT +S . the dialog box will open in a flash and disspear. and photoshop will hang.it is actually not hung but you cant do anything with the file because the save as dialog box is still open. but you cant see it because it is not in the screen but outside .just press enter at this point of time to save your file. try opening and saving another file and your save as dialog box returns to its normal position

   
Reply to kunwar

47

Guru2us, on Nov 2, 2008 11:15:06 am GMT

It worked Kunwar

Thanks

   
Reply to Guru2us

63

Blaze, on Feb 3, 2009 11:01:16 am GMT

Thank you so much! This worked like a treat.

I read somewhere else to just turn off Version Cue, which worked too but not as good as the advice you suggested.

Thanks again :)

   
Reply to Blaze

66

Amar, on Feb 8, 2009 9:47:31 am GMT

This means, the problem is the Photoshop CS3 setup shares the files in two folders. one is the root folder, with name Adobe, and some number of files in the folder by name "Common files". May be, the folder which are inside the Common Files folder might be unfortunately deleted or moved, this causes the particular error saying that some DLL files are missing when the photoshop is tried to being used. If the Setup is available try reinstalling photoshop again. Be sur that there rare no files left after uninstalling the older one(including registry).

   
Reply to Amar
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