Error In Opening Tax Return File

Yepper22 — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 05:12:40 GMT

I had printed out the official returns to review, then I saved a PDF file of what was printed out, and then I saved and closed the file to take a break. When I came back to open the TurboTax file to e-file the returns , I experienced an “Error in opening Tax Return File.” No error code or any other message was displayed.

Thank God the backup file with a tilde (~) was available, and I was able to open it. (I am using the Windows CD version of the 2021 TurboTax Deluxe with the latest updates.)

Questions:

I can e-file using the backup tax return file that has the tilde -- correct?
Should I delete the tax return file that doesn’t have the tilde and can't be opened, to avoid confusion? Is there any reason to hang on to it? (I’m assuming it can’t be opened anymore because of file corruption.)

Thanks.

Re: Error In Opening Tax Return File

MichelleLO — Thu, 24 Feb 2022 20:10:44 GMT

Yes, you can use your backup file to replace the corrupted original. I would recommend creating a new backup file as well. For more information, please see the below TurboTax help articles.

topic Error In Opening Tax Return File in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

Error In Opening Tax Return File

Re: Error In Opening Tax Return File