Error while opening MS Project 2013 .mpp file . Project cannot recognize this file format.

Question

Hi all,

while opening MS Project File project1.mpp I got strange error as :

further drill I got issue again as :

I check in the google but there is no any exact solution found out,  so anyone who have better idea please help on this. Or this is some issue along with the Microsoft Project Product itself. 

I tried to open the same project1.mpp in another computer but same error found. Aslo, I tried by setting trust Legacy setting it also doesn't work .

I couldn't understand how this error had occurred since the file is working fine a day before.

Thanks 

Anil Maharjan

Answer 1

Anil --

The dialogs you show indicate that the project is probably corrupted and cannot be opened.  If your organization does a nightly backup of the folder where you saved this project, perhaps your IT people can restore an earlier version of the project file.  Beyond this, I am aware of software that can supposedly fix file corruption in Microsoft Project files, but I have never used any of these tools.  One option you might try to get the file open is to do the following:

1. Launch Microsoft Project and create a new blank project.'
2. Click Project > Subproject.
3. In the Insert Project dialog, select the corrupted project and DESELECT the "Link to project" checkbox.
4. Click the Insert button.

If Microsoft Project is able to insert the corrupted project into the blank project, you may need to do a little cleanup with levels of indenture, but then save the project with a new file name.  Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Hi Dale,

Thanks for your reply but the solution you shared didn't work for my case may be the file get corrupted , I also tried to use the Project Repair Kit that also didn't work ,also i tried by repairing the MS Project setup itself .

I think there should be some way to open the similar error type file , since it's strange to have corrupted file which is working fine a day before. So, Microsoft should make their products more effective and give proper solution if anyone having these kind of errors .

I can see a lot of post related to issues like this.

Thanks,

Anil Maharjan