99.9% of the time you can open files that you have created without a problem. But every now and again you might try to open one and either nothing happens or you get an unfathomable error message.

There are many reasons that might cause this. See the table below.

Reason 1

You might be using the wrong application to open the file. The file has a .xls extension and you are trying to open it with a photo editing application

Reason 2

The file might have been saved with an incorrect file extension. You might have been in a hurry to save at the end of the lesson and called your work something like: Macbeth.do Instead of Macbeth.doc

Reason 3

You might be trying to use an early version of an application to read a file created by a later version. For example, you do your homework using the latest Word version at home, come into school and try to open it with Word 2003.

Reason 4

The file might be empty. The file name was created but no data was saved into it (it is possible to have a 0 kb file)

Reason 5

The file might be corrupted, perhaps another application has written over it with invalid data e.g. an exe file could have been overwritten with a text tile

Reason 6

Security protection – your access rights on the network might not be sufficient to allow you to open a file.

Reason 7

Encryption – The file may be encrypted and you do not have the right key to decrypt it

Reason 8

Password protection – the file might have been protected by the author and you don’t have the correct password in order to open it.

Reason 9

Lost file – it may have been stored in an unknown folder or renamed.