Yalantis/uCrop · error · CImgIOException

load_tiff(): Failed to open file '%s'.

Error message

load_tiff(): Failed to open file '%s'.

What it means

load_tiff() calls TIFFOpen() on the given filename; when that returns null (file missing, unreadable, or not openable by libtiff), the library throws a CImgIOException reporting failure to open the file.

Source

Thrown at ucrop/src/main/jni/CImg.h:58025

                     cimg_instance,
                     filename,nb_images,nfirst_frame,nlast_frame,nstep_frame);

        if (nfirst_frame>=nb_images) return assign();
        if (nlast_frame>=nb_images) nlast_frame = nb_images - 1;
        TIFFSetDirectory(tif,0);
        CImg<T> frame;
        for (unsigned int l = nfirst_frame; l<=nlast_frame; l+=nstep_frame) {
          frame._load_tiff(tif,l,bits_per_value,voxel_size,description);
          if (l==nfirst_frame)
            assign(frame._width,frame._height,1 + (nlast_frame - nfirst_frame)/nstep_frame,frame._spectrum);
          if (frame._width>_width || frame._height>_height || frame._spectrum>_spectrum)
            resize(std::max(frame._width,_width),
                   std::max(frame._height,_height),-100,
                   std::max(frame._spectrum,_spectrum),0);
          draw_image(0,0,(l - nfirst_frame)/nstep_frame,frame);
        }
        TIFFClose(tif);
      } else throw CImgIOException(_cimg_instance
                                   "load_tiff(): Failed to open file '%s'.",
                                   cimg_instance,
                                   filename);
      return *this;
#endif
    }

    //! Load image from a TIFF file \newinstance.
    static CImg<T> get_load_tiff(const char *const filename,
                                 const unsigned int first_frame=0, const unsigned int last_frame=~0U,
                                 const unsigned int step_frame=1, unsigned int *const bits_per_value=0,
                                 float *const voxel_size=0, CImg<charT> *const description=0) {
      return CImg<T>().load_tiff(filename,first_frame,last_frame,step_frame,bits_per_value,voxel_size,description);
    }

    // (Original contribution by Jerome Boulanger).
#ifdef cimg_use_tiff
    template<typename t>

View on GitHub (pinned to f788b534b4)

Solutions

1. Verify the file exists at the exact path passed (check with a stat/ifstream before loading).
2. Use an absolute path, especially in Android where the cwd is not the app directory.
3. Check file read permissions and, on Android, ensure storage permissions are granted.
4. Confirm the file is a readable TIFF (libtiff fails to open malformed headers too).

Example fix

// before
img.load_tiff("scan.tif");
// after
std::ifstream f("/data/scan.tif");
if (!f) throw std::runtime_error("scan.tif not found");
img.load_tiff("/data/scan.tif");

std::ifstream probe(path, std::ios::binary);
if (!probe) throw std::runtime_error(std::string("cannot open ") + path);
probe.close();
img.load_tiff(path);

try { img.load_tiff(path); }
catch (CImgIOException &e) { /* open failed */ showUserError(e.what()); }

When it happens

Trigger: img.load_tiff("/path/missing.tif") where the file does not exist, the process lacks read permission, or the path is wrong relative to the working directory.

Common situations: Typo'd or relative paths in a mobile/JNI app where the working directory differs from expectations, files not packaged with the app, or storage permissions missing.

Understand the failure class

Background: "open() failed", "failed to open file", "cannot create file" — what a file open error means and how to fix it — this error's family across 42 libraries.

Related errors

• cimg::fopen(): Specified file path is (null).
• cimg::fopen(): File '%s', specified mode is (null).
• cimg::fopen(): Failed to open file '%s' with mode '%s'.
• cimg::fread(): Invalid reading request of %u %s%s from file
• cimg::fwrite(): Invalid writing request of %u %s%s from buff

AI-assisted analysis of Yalantis/uCrop@f788b534b4 (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/7402b51a37ea37d9. Report an issue: GitHub.