Adobe InDesign may not support the file format, a plug-in that supports the file format may be missing

Adobe InDesign cannot open the file...

“Cannot open the file “*****INDD.” Adobe InDesign may not support the file format, a plug-in that supports the file format may be missing, or the file may be open in another application.”

Good news- Solution below!

That was the message a customers file was giving us. They thought they had a corrupt InDesign file; and it might still be. But what does this rather broad Adobe InDesign error message mean?

From a few Google searches, I see, oddly enough, that many will get this Adobe InDesign error message when trying to open a version of QuarkXPress higher than v4.11; which Adobe cannot handle. (Markzware Q2ID can of course convert all versions of QuarkXPress right into Adobe InDesign.)

Yet this message also seems to come up at other un-appropriate times; like the file is really damaged. For instance in this thread, titled, “INDD file created in France will not open in the US” we see the same exact Adobe error message as above… So what is going on?

SOLUTION FOUND!
Then the solution appeared; which I figured as much, for the file is not recognized even by Markzware’s FlightCheck. We find the answers here in this useful thread:

“The problem to which John referred had to do with something that happened to the files along the way – either as a result of a file server, or email process – that added 128 bytes to the beginning of the file. When I removed the first 128 bytes in a hex editor, and saved the file, it would open without problem.”
Source: http://17.adobe-indesign-macintosh.overzone.net/plug-in-support-is-missing-t172.html

Now, let’s try this on this customers file I have here… It Works! Watch this movie to see how I did this (with the help of the above, quoted thread, of course) and I thought Type & Creator problems were gone on the Mac since Apple OS X!:

So, now you too can stop nasty problems with Adobe InDesign!

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