Unsupported File Type Error in Google Drive – How to Fix

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The unsupported file type is one of the most common errors in Google Drive. People often face it when they try to open any media or document file in Google Drive.

If you are also facing this unsupported file type error in Google Drive and looking for its solution, you have come across the right webpage. In this article, I am going to share different methods that you can follow to get rid of this error.

So, without any further ado, let’s get started –

How to Fix Unsupported File Type Error in Google Drive

Google Drive is one of the most popular and widely used cloud storage services on the internet. People use it for both personal and business usage.

The best thing about Google Drive is that it is backed by Google’s own productivity and entertainment tools. This allows users to open files without downloading them.

While the tools offered by Google to run these media files and documents are quite robust, they possess some bugs, and at times, people face issues opening their documents and files.

Even though the list of errors faced by Google Drive users is quite big, the most common one is the unsupported file type.

Also, check out, Advantages of Using OneDrive and Google Drive

Below we have shared some of the possible reasons that might be causing this error and the solutions that you can follow to fix this error –

1. File Format is the issue

This is something that I don’t think I need to explain, as the error itself explains it very well.

As the error says, it cannot run the file because of the unsupported file type, and there are plenty of good chances that you are facing this error because Google Drive doesn’t support the file type.

Even though Google Drive allows you to upload anything that falls under the uploading range of Google Drive, it only lets you preview the file types mentioned below –

  • Archives – .Zip, .RAR, .tar, .GZip
  • Audio Formats – .MP3, .MPEG, .WAV, .ogg, .opus
  • Image Files – .JPEG, .PNG, .GIF, .BMP, .TIFF, .SVG
  • Codes and Markups – .CSS, .PHP, .HTML, .C, .CPP, .HPP, .H, .JS, .java, .py
  • Text Files – .TXT
  • Video Files – WebM, .MPEG4, .3GPP, .MOV, .AVI, .MPEGPS, .WMV, .FLV, .ogg
  • Microsoft Files – .XLS, .XLSX, .PPT, .PPTX, .DOC, .DOCX, .XPS
  • Adobe Files – .DXF, .AI, .PSD, .PDF, .EPS, .PS, .SVG, .TIFF, .TTF
  • Apple Files – .key, .number

So, these are the file types Google Drive supports for preview. Check if Google Drive supports the file that you are trying to open for preview and if yes, you can try the solutions mentioned below in this article.

Otherwise, you have to download the file or convert it to a format supported by Google Drive for preview. That’s the only way to open such files in Google Drive.

Read Google Drive Personal vs Business – What’s The Main Difference?

2. Browser Related Issues

Another common reason people face this issue is using an incompatible browser. To see if this error is occurring because of the browser, you can try these simple things –

Outdated Browser

Make sure you are not using any older versions of the browser. If yes, try updating your browser to the latest released version and see if the error is fixed or not.

Unsupported File Type Error in Google Drive
Unsupported File Type Error in Google Drive

Cache Issues

Every time you visit a website, your web browser stores some data from that website, such as logo, fonts, and more. Your browser does this to serve you the website faster when the next you request to load it.

While cache memory is designed to help users by loading web pages faster, sometimes it triggers some issues. A thumb rule to consider is that if a website isn’t loading properly on your browser, try clearing your cache. Most of the time, this fixes the issue.

To find out whether you need to clear cache, open incognito mode, open your Google Drive, and try to open the file. If you don’t see the unsupported file type error in incognito mode, you have to clear the cache. Otherwise, follow the next method.

Here is how you can clear cache memory – 

  • Launch your web browser.
  • Press CTRL, Shift, and Delete keys on your keyboard altogether.
  • This will open a pop-up box. Select the Time range as All-time or Everything, and make sure that the Cache or Cached images and files option is selected.
Fix Unsupported File Type Error in Google Drive
Unsupported File Type Error in Google Drive
  • Now, click on the Clear Data button.

That’s it. This will clear the cache memory, and your issue will probably get solved.

Plugins

In very rare cases, this error can occur due to the installation of a third-party plugin that might be causing a hindrance. If you were able to preview that file earlier, but after installing any plugin, the preview of the file shows this error, the plugin is the reason.

Another way to confirm if the plugin is causing the error – open the file on any other device or browser.

If you are sure that this is the reason, simply uninstall the plugin on your browser, and you’re good to go.

4. Your Internet Connection is Slow

There are chances that this error can be triggered due to an unstable or slow internet connection. This prevents Google Drive from loading the preview page properly. Therefore, check your internet connection’s speed and stability.

If you are sure that your connection is not the reason, follow the next method.

Read How to Remove User from All Files in Google Drive

Google’s Preview Limitations

If you are facing this issue with a video, then there might be some chances that it is happening due to Google’s preview limitations.

This happens because even though Google lets you upload almost any type of video that falls under the upload criteria of Google Drive, you cannot preview everything you upload.

Some of the possible reasons behind this are –

  • The file format of your video as Google Drive supports very limited file types for preview.
  • The playback resolution of your video is more than 1920 x 1080, as that is the maximum playback resolution Google Drive supports.
  • The file size is quite large, and your internet connection isn’t fast enough to load it at the moment.
  • The file isn’t uploaded properly or is corrupted.

You can check if these are the reasons and if yes, you can download the video file to your local storage.

Related Google Drive tutorials:

Closing Comments

There you have it – a detailed article on Google Drive’s unsupported file type error.

The unsupported file type is one of the most common Google Drive errors most often occur because you want to run a file that Google Drive doesn’t support for preview. Therefore, the first solution to fix this issue is to check the file format. However, sometimes some other reasons can also trigger this issue.