The message you see when you try to open the file will give you some clues. From there, you can choose the best way to solve it. A bit of detective work early on can help you work out what the problem is. Maybe the file has become corrupted, someone saved it in an incorrect format, or you’re simply opening it with the wrong program. Find the causeĪll kinds of problems could be making that PDF fail to load or video refuse to play. Most of the time, the following tricks will let you fix the issue yourself. But you shouldn’t give up and delete them right away. Being unable to open files as usual is one of the most frustrating tech problems you’re likely to encounter.