Thanks for getting this to our attention and sharing some updates on what you have done so far, @RWD8,

I know this has impacted your workflow in QuickBooks Desktop, but there is currently an ongoing issue in the program.

We received several reports about the program displaying the error “The file you specified cannot be opened” and “The file exists” when updating payroll. Our engineers are notified about this and are now working on the fix as soon as possible.

The recommended troubleshooting for this error is listed in this article: How to fix payroll errors: “The file you specified cannot be opened” and “The file exists”

If the workaround still doesn't work, I recommend contacting our Support Team to add your account to the notification list. Once added, you'll receive live email updates of the current status of the issue and its fix.

Follow these steps to contact our support:

1. Open QuickBooks and click the Help menu.
2. Select QuickBooks Desktop Help.
3. On the pop-up screen select Contact us.
   
4. Click the Search for Something else button then type your concern in the Ask us anything box.
5. Hit Search then scroll down to get your contact options.

Refer to this article to learn more about our contact options and support availability: Contact QuickBooks Desktop support

Provide the investigation number INV-33239 to our agents for faster tracking.

We appreciate your patience while this is being worked on. Please post here anytime if you need other help with QuickBooks Desktop.