Unknown name — the file type could not be resolved

0x80020006 — Unknown name — the file type could not be resolved The shell could not map the extension to a handler.

Steps that usually fix it

  1. Re-create the association in Default Apps
  2. Remove the custom association
  3. Rename the file to lowercase

Checked 2026-10-05 — R. Okonkwo.

Before changing anything

The code above is what an application reports; it is not a diagnosis of what went wrong. Two checks are worth doing before permissions are touched: whether the file is on a volume the application can actually reach, and whether the file was moved or renamed since it was last opened. Both report as this code more often than a permission problem does.

Pages in this section describe the code as applications report it. Where a fix is listed here, it is one the library has seen work on a real file; where nothing has been confirmed, the page says so instead of guessing at a cause.