Guides
How to Open a UDF File on a Computer or Phone
A step-by-step guide to opening a Turkish UYAP .udf document with the official UYAP Document Editor, by converting it to PDF or Word, or on your phone.
Author: Hemen Dönüştür Editör EkibiPublished: 7 min read
If someone sent you a petition, court record or decision with a .udf extension and nothing happens when you double-click it, you are not alone. In Turkey, UDF is the native format of the UYAP Document Editor (UYAP Doküman Editörü), the editor used with the country's national judiciary information system. Microsoft Word, PDF readers and phone viewers do not recognise it. This guide covers three ways to open a UDF file: installing the official editor, converting the file to PDF or Word, and opening it on a phone. At the end there is an important note about e-signed documents.
Note: the UDF in this guide is the UYAP document format. It is unrelated to the Universal Disk Format used on optical discs, which shares the same three letters.
What is a UDF file?
UDF is the format in which documents prepared inside UYAP (Ulusal Yargı Ağı Bilişim Sistemi, Turkey's National Judiciary Informatics System) are saved. Documents that lawyers, court experts and institutions file to or download from UYAP usually carry this extension. Technically, a UDF file is a ZIP package that contains a file named content.xml: the document's text, fonts, alignment and paragraph settings, tables and embedded images are stored in that XML. General-purpose programs therefore cannot open it; you need software that understands the UDF structure, or a converter.
Method 1: Open it with the official UYAP Document Editor
The official way to open, edit and e-sign UDF files is the UYAP Document Editor (listed on the site as "UYAP Editör"). It is a free download from the UYAP Editor page on the official UYAP website. The page offers installers for Windows, macOS builds for Intel and Apple Silicon, and a package for Pardus and Debian-based Linux distributions.
- Open the UYAP Editor page on uyap.gov.tr in your browser. Download the program only from this official page; copies on third-party download sites may be outdated or unsafe.
- Choose the package for your operating system. On a Mac, pick the Intel (x86_64) or Apple Silicon (ARM64) build to match your processor.
- Finish the installation and launch the program.
- Open the UDF file from the editor's file menu, or double-click the file.
Do you need Java? According to the official page, the macOS Intel build offered for Big Sur 11 and earlier requires a compatible Java version, while the other macOS builds can be used without Java. The same page notes that printing on Pardus and Debian requires the cups-bsd package.
If you need to sign the document with an e-signature or mobile signature, use the latest version of the editor; the UYAP FAQ gives this as the first step for signing problems. Installing the editor is the right choice whenever you will edit the document and send it back through UYAP.
Method 2: Convert it to PDF or Word without the editor
If you only need to read, print or forward the document, you do not have to install anything. Once a UDF file is converted to PDF or Word, it opens on any computer, tablet or phone. Our UDF to PDF and UDF to Word converters do exactly that.
- Open the UDF to PDF converter. If you want to edit the text, choose the UDF to Word converter instead.
- Drag and drop your
.udffile, or add it with the file picker. - Start the conversion and download the result when it is ready.
The conversion runs on our server: the file is uploaded over a secure connection, converted, and both your upload and the output are deleted within 30 minutes at the latest. No sign-up is needed.
What carries over?
Our converter reads the content.xml file inside the UDF package and rebuilds the document. The following are kept:
- Text and Turkish characters; bold, italic, underline and strikethrough
- Font, font size, text color and highlight color
- Paragraph alignment, indents and line spacing
- Numbered and bulleted lists
- Tables, in their original position in the document
- Embedded images such as stamps and logos
A few details change: the header and footer appear once, at the start and end of the output; fonts that are not installed on our server are replaced with a similar font. The PDF is created on standard A4 pages, so custom page margins set in the UDF are not carried over.
PDF or Word?
Choose PDF if you will read, print or send the document to a client; it looks the same on every device. Choose Word if you will change the text, reuse an old petition as a template or quote from it. A document you edited in Word can later be turned back into UYAP format with the Word to UDF converter. If all you need is the plain text, UDF to TXT is also available.
Method 3: Open a UDF file on your phone
The Turkish Ministry of Justice publishes a mobile app called "UYAP Doküman Editör" on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and the official UYAP page links to an Android version on Google Play. According to its App Store description, the app is made for viewing UDF documents: it displays documents with images and tables, lets you search inside a document and can export the content as PDF. It is a viewer, not an editor.
The description also carries a useful warning: UDF files sent through WhatsApp Web may have their extension changed to .zip, and the app does not open them. The developer recommends sharing the file from the WhatsApp mobile app and checking that the file name ends in .udf.
If you would rather not install an app, our converter also works in a phone browser: pick the .udf file from your files and convert it to PDF. The downloaded PDF opens in the phone's built-in viewer.
A note on e-signed UDF files
When you convert a UDF document that was signed in UYAP with an e-signature or mobile signature, the content moves to the new file, but the signature cannot be verified in it. The converted file is a new file and does not replace the official document in UYAP. So:
- Use the PDF or Word output for reading, printing, sharing and as a working copy.
- File documents to a court or enforcement office through UYAP.
- If you edited a document in Word and converted it back to UDF, open it in the UYAP Document Editor to check it and sign it again with your e-signature before sending.
What if the UDF file still will not open?
- Check the extension. A file that travelled through e-mail or messaging apps may end in
.zip. Downloading the document from UYAP again is the safest fix. - Make sure the download finished. A truncated or corrupted UDF does not contain
content.xml; in that case our converter reports that the file cannot be read. - Update the editor. An old version of the UYAP Document Editor can struggle with newer documents or with signing; install the latest version from the official page.
- Try another route. If the editor will not start, converting the document to PDF gets you to the content right away.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can Microsoft Word open a UDF file directly?
No. Word does not recognise the .udf extension. Convert the file to DOCX with the UDF to Word converter first; the DOCX opens in Word, Google Docs and LibreOffice.
How do I open a UDF file on a Mac?
The official UYAP page offers macOS builds for both Intel and Apple Silicon. If you do not want to install anything, convert the UDF to PDF and open it in Preview.
Do tables and images survive the conversion to PDF?
Yes. Tables keep their cell structure and embedded images stay where they were. The main thing that changes is the page setup: the PDF uses standard A4 pages and standard margins.
Is my UDF file stored on your server?
The file is uploaded to our server only to be converted. Both the uploaded file and the output are deleted within 30 minutes at the latest.
Can I turn a PDF back into a UDF?
Yes, PDF to UDF conversion is available, but tables do not come back as tables when the source is a PDF. If you plan to edit the document and return it to UDF, converting the UDF to Word, editing it there and then converting Word to UDF gives better results.
Does converting an e-signed UDF invalidate the signature?
Your original UDF file is not changed; the conversion only creates a new file. The signature cannot be verified in the new file, so for official use rely on the original document or a version signed again in UYAP.
