Troubleshooting: Unable to Open Keynote Document

We need to thank user Bill on the Apple Support Community for his advice on how to fix this issue. Also special thanks to our friend Dave for helping us find this answer several months ago.

Unable to Open “docname” because it isn’t a valid Keynote document

I wanted to repost this here because this just happened to me again and I had to look up the fix. If you’ve had this happen you know it is the most frustrating, debilitating dialog box you’ve ever seen. This fixes it every time.

1. Don’t panic.
2. Add .zip to the name of the file*
3. Double click that file
4. Open the resulting file.

*make sure you don’t just replace .key — add the .zip after that — so your file is .key.zip This also works if you didn’t have an extension at all – just add both.

[11/6/12 Editors Note: In the comments we've seen some people having issue with this not fixing the problem. The best advice I can give is to rename your file something that is letters only — no spaces or special characters and make sure you get the full extensions on there. filename.key.zip for example. We are not affiliated with Apple or Keynote and cannot provide personal tech support on this issue. This fix still seems to work 9 out of 10 times.]

[2/21/13 Editors Note: We posted this a long time ago! If the fix works for you, HOORAY! If it doesn't, that's frustrating, I'm so sorry, I've been there. Try searching help forums for the exact error in quotes—make sure to include version number and what sort of device you are on. We don't support this product, we're just people that use and love it—unfortunately we cannot provide technical support for you. As of today, we are closing the comments on this article.]