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Outlook: “Can’t Create File” Error When Opening Attachment

Outlook: “Can’t Create File” Error When Opening Attachment

February 27, 2023 by Mitch Bartlett 99 Comments

When you try to open a file attachment in Microsoft Outlook, you get an error:

Can’t create file: filename. Right-click the folder you want to create the file in, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu to check your permissions for the folder.

This problem occurs usually when Outlook cannot access the temp file the file is linked to. To resolve this problem, try the following steps.

  1. Hold the Windows Key, then press “R” to bring up the Run dialog box.
  2. Type “Regedit“, then press “Enter“.
  3. Click “Edit” > “Find” and type “OutlookSecureTempFolder“.
  4. When regedit has found the entry, it will tell you where your Outlook temporary files are stored. It will look similar to one of the following:
    • C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\ Content.Outlook\randomnumber\
    • C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLKrandomnumber
  5. Bring up the File Explorer, then navigate to the location in the registry key.
  6. Delete all of the files in this folder.
  7. Restart Microsoft Outlook and you should be able to open your attachment.

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Filed Under: Office

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. sufiyan says

    September 26, 2022 at 3:20 am

    thanks bro its working but evreday same type email comming evryday i try this method then open my pdf you
    have permanent solution ? pls help

  2. sufiyan says

    September 26, 2022 at 3:18 am

    thanks bro its working but evreday same type email comming evryday i try this method then open my pdf you permanent solution

  3. Aziz says

    July 24, 2022 at 10:21 pm

    Thanks, Bro. ❤️
    You saved my ass!!

  4. Tonnie says

    April 22, 2022 at 7:43 am

    Thanks mahn, this worked!

  5. Xolani Makua says

    February 3, 2022 at 6:06 am

    Thank you for your help, It is resolved!!!!!!!!

  6. Nadeera perera says

    November 9, 2021 at 11:25 pm

    Excellent support.. Now it works perfectly…

    Thanks,

  7. Mike Z says

    July 23, 2021 at 1:30 pm

    Just wanted to say thank you very much, this fixed the issue with our Outlook 2010. Great job!

  8. TJ says

    June 11, 2021 at 4:23 pm

    Perfect

    Thanks,

    Desktop support Tech, Random Hospital USA.

  9. Fabio Quintal says

    October 13, 2020 at 11:04 pm

    This worked for me!

    Thanks!

  10. Hussain Ibrahim says

    October 13, 2020 at 6:25 am

    Thanks man, it solve my problem.

  11. hikari says

    September 2, 2020 at 5:17 am

    Thank you! after searching and searching this is the solution that worked!

  12. Nanag Taten says

    August 26, 2020 at 12:18 am

    Thanks man, it solve my problem.

  13. Nanag Taten says

    August 10, 2020 at 7:28 pm

    Thanks dude, the first step worked. Thanks again.

  14. rahul says

    August 9, 2020 at 5:12 am

    For Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007:
    Select Start, select All Programs, select Accessories, and then select Run.
    In the Run dialog box, type the following command (including the quotation marks), and then select OK.
    “C:\Users\ username \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Temporary Internet Files

    then delete all data, try to open the outlook attachment

  15. manjula fernando says

    July 15, 2020 at 3:32 am

    thx its worked

  16. Shams says

    June 24, 2020 at 5:30 am

    Thanks it worked for me ( Outlook 2007)

  17. Vittal says

    June 1, 2020 at 3:58 am

    Thanks a lot ! Working fine after doing as guided.

  18. Blogueur Reine says

    May 16, 2020 at 4:31 am

    It’s Really very helpful, Thank You,,, My Error Resolved.

  19. reagan says

    May 8, 2020 at 1:39 am

    a ton thanks,

  20. ca says

    April 9, 2020 at 5:39 am

    Thank you

  21. kevin holton says

    March 6, 2020 at 10:19 am

    Thank you, problem solved

  22. Sreejith G says

    February 13, 2020 at 11:33 pm

    Thanks !!

  23. Tracey says

    January 30, 2020 at 1:38 pm

    I am using Outlook 2007 and using a current version of MS Excel & word. I followed the directions, which seemed like they were going to work, although not exactly the same issue I am having. When I click onto an excel worksheet in an email, Excel starts up but then I get “the file is corrupt and cannot be opened.” Do you have a fix for this?

    I did shut down Outlook before trying again.

    Sorry for posting again, but I did want to mention that if I save the excel doc to my computer, it opens.

  24. Tracey says

    January 30, 2020 at 1:34 pm

    I am using Outlook 2007 and using a current version of MS Exce & word. I followed the directions, which seems like they were going to work. When I click onto an excel worksheet in an email, Excel starts up but then I get “the file is corrupt and cannot be opened.” Do you have a fix for this?

  25. rajeev says

    January 23, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    works perfectly!! thanks a million!

  26. Pippo says

    January 21, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    Thank you!!!!
    You have saved me!!!!

  27. @zfar says

    December 5, 2019 at 10:25 pm

    It resolved. Thank you so much

  28. Priup says

    November 26, 2019 at 4:52 am

    Thank you, that worked!!

  29. Joel says

    November 20, 2019 at 7:32 am

    The Outlook file in the Register is not found in the Temp Internet file

  30. junaid kamal says

    October 21, 2019 at 3:18 am

    Thanks its working.

  31. Rick T says

    September 27, 2019 at 2:06 pm

    That was it. Thank you!

  32. Krishna says

    September 26, 2019 at 12:01 am

    Thanks a lot. My problem solved.

  33. Loke YK says

    August 27, 2019 at 9:20 pm

    thanks for the tips! worked well!!!

  34. Remo says

    August 25, 2019 at 2:30 am

    thanks its working

  35. Kaynan says

    August 5, 2019 at 8:15 am

    Wow! it worked.

    Thank you

  36. Pak Mega Place says

    July 23, 2019 at 4:22 am

    it worked :)

  37. Andre Kevin says

    July 16, 2019 at 8:54 pm

    works for me! you saved many clicks for me :D

  38. sheryl says

    July 2, 2019 at 2:09 am

    Thank you! It worked for me

  39. noushad says

    June 30, 2019 at 12:18 am

    it doesn’t work for me. i am using ms office 2013

  40. Alok Singh says

    June 16, 2019 at 8:26 am

    Hello there,
    I followed the steps and found its not working for me, kindly help with another way if possible.

  41. Sergey says

    May 21, 2019 at 2:41 am

    Thank you! It works!

  42. aruna says

    May 18, 2019 at 12:51 am

    Thanks, It’s Working.

  43. Ashok Kumar G says

    May 15, 2019 at 4:51 am

    Thank you so much. its woking normal

  44. Darin says

    May 1, 2019 at 5:31 pm

    Amazing help! Thank you.

  45. M.Yaqoob says

    April 17, 2019 at 6:44 am

    Thanks a lot

  46. karim shehata says

    April 7, 2019 at 2:35 am

    thanks man . it works

  47. Edy GR says

    February 14, 2019 at 10:53 am

    Thank you so much , it works on outlook 2010

  48. Mildred says

    January 27, 2019 at 10:38 pm

    Thank you so much, it works.

  49. Mr.RedHat says

    January 22, 2019 at 8:42 pm

    Thanks alot its workings

  50. Ermin says

    January 17, 2019 at 2:49 am

    thanks its working

  51. Mostafa says

    January 15, 2019 at 3:56 am

    very helpful . than you so much

  52. Mark says

    November 20, 2018 at 6:58 pm

    Thanks a lot!
    It’s working again! This problem bother me for quite a long time.

  53. Ashish Mishra says

    October 28, 2018 at 1:35 am

    as my excel file is not greeting open .kindly help .

  54. Andras Kiss says

    October 19, 2018 at 3:56 am

    Many thanks! Works like a charm!

  55. Dean Brusnighan says

    August 15, 2018 at 5:08 pm

    This didn’t fix the problem for me. Your instructions were great, but after deleting the files I still can’t open the attachment. It happens to be a Meeting.ics file from WebEx.

  56. Sandip Borude says

    July 3, 2018 at 11:58 pm

    It’s working. Any permanent solution for this.

  57. Vardhan says

    June 5, 2018 at 1:26 am

    Thanks alot its workings

  58. Alan Clayton says

    May 30, 2018 at 5:04 am

    When I got to the folder I had a message that it was unreadable or corrupted. What do I do now?

  59. Mohamed aziff says

    May 30, 2018 at 12:13 am

    Thanks, It’s Working.

  60. Stewart Zulu says

    May 11, 2018 at 2:56 am

    It’s working, thanks very much.

  61. Ajith says

    May 1, 2018 at 7:57 am

    I have following step clear with error.

    Thanks you so much.

  62. Rakeshrao says

    April 12, 2018 at 7:18 am

    Its working. Thank you so much

  63. Refilwe says

    February 9, 2018 at 3:22 am

    thank you so much it worked

  64. Jiyalal prajapati says

    December 28, 2017 at 11:48 pm

    Thank you very much.

  65. Bidur says

    November 20, 2017 at 2:18 am

    I have followed the instruction what you provided but without deleting any file because I am scared if other file will delete coz I am confusing about the value data. I have restarted the system, finally it is working.

    Many thanks….

  66. tracy says

    November 17, 2017 at 4:48 am

    You are a genius – worked a treat!!!

  67. Flesz says

    November 7, 2017 at 7:11 pm

    awesome, thanks

  68. Avinesh says

    October 5, 2017 at 4:12 pm

    thanks…it worked.

  69. Majid says

    June 4, 2017 at 1:58 pm

    thank you so much

  70. sripal says

    May 20, 2017 at 5:37 am

    thank you very much.

  71. riyas says

    April 10, 2017 at 9:59 am

    Thanks a lot

  72. Perry says

    February 8, 2017 at 12:20 pm

    C:\Users\username\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\INetCache\ Content.Outlook\randomnumber\

    The Registry gave the above name but in the file folder all I found was INetCacheContent.Word

    I deleted the files in this folder and it worked fine opening attachments (.pdf) in Outlook

    Thanks! Perry

  73. Greville says

    February 2, 2017 at 11:41 am

    A massive thank you. I have been plagued with the problem of not being able to open a particular pdf doc sent to me regularly by my employer. I have had to use a different laptop every time!
    Various people have tried to fathom the problem including clients for whom I work who are supposedly experts.
    I followed your instructions and it now opens normally. Really pleased!
    Finally a real expert!

  74. Muhammad Abdullah says

    January 30, 2017 at 4:01 am

    Now the attachments are accessible. Thank you very much!

  75. Dharani says

    January 17, 2017 at 4:32 am

    thank you it is working.

  76. Coert says

    January 11, 2017 at 9:01 am

    Cheers! In my case it occured because the same filename was already saves 200 times

    5.pdf
    5 (1).pdf
    5 (2).pdf
    …
    5 (199).pdf
    etc.

  77. Calvin says

    December 6, 2016 at 3:46 pm

    Worked, and made me look good in the process Thank You very Much!

  78. Tammy says

    December 3, 2016 at 4:42 am

    Thank you worked great. The other solutions involve changing the registry and always scared to do that

  79. Bibhuti says

    November 28, 2016 at 10:32 pm

    thank you so much…it worked

  80. Gran says

    September 30, 2016 at 11:53 am

    Never works for me. I have tried several times and changed the temp directory as well and still doesn’t work.

  81. Asad Mehmood says

    September 19, 2016 at 12:08 am

    Thanks a million. It worked :)

  82. samith says

    August 29, 2016 at 6:33 am

    thanks worked like a charm

  83. Anurag says

    August 26, 2016 at 2:46 am

    Excellent support.. now it works perfectly…

    Thanks

  84. Ado says

    August 11, 2016 at 4:20 am

    thank you so much…it worked

  85. Usman says

    July 19, 2016 at 3:18 am

    Been panic to fix the problem for an angry enduser of my network. And it helped me a lot.. Acted like a wizard. Thanks

  86. Emmanuel says

    June 28, 2016 at 3:48 am

    It worked like a charm

  87. CH says

    June 8, 2016 at 7:45 am

    What the heck, this fixed nothing…

    Just kidding, worked like a charm. I didn’t want to comment the same as everyone else, sounds like an echo in here.

  88. Thanh Tam says

    May 28, 2016 at 3:26 am

    Thank you! I have already fixed this problem ^^

  89. tushar says

    April 20, 2016 at 3:57 am

    It worked thanks

  90. zee says

    April 14, 2016 at 7:22 am

    It worked like magic

  91. zee says

    April 14, 2016 at 7:20 am

    Wow thanks thanks it worked

  92. Hotshot says

    April 8, 2016 at 3:19 am

    Thanks it Worked

  93. Trevor sauna says

    March 29, 2016 at 7:31 pm

    yes it worked for me :)

  94. Didi Iswadi says

    March 22, 2016 at 9:15 pm

    thanks alot. it worked! :)

  95. your friend says

    March 19, 2016 at 3:41 am

    Thanks it Worked

  96. Mesut Ulas says

    March 17, 2016 at 4:30 am

    thank you, it worked! :)

  97. bryan albert says

    March 9, 2016 at 8:29 am

    worked like a charm!! thank you

  98. heycomputerguy says

    March 1, 2016 at 1:36 pm

    Worked like a charm, thanks!

  99. abdul malik says

    February 26, 2016 at 2:36 pm

    thank you. it worked! :)

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