Repairing Corrupted PDFs
PDFs get corrupted in various ways: incomplete downloads, transfer errors, storage issues, software problems can make them unreadable. When you encounter a PDF that won't open, shows errors, displays wrong, or has missing content, this might help. Analyzes damaged file structure and tries to rebuild by identifying salvageable content - text, images, layout elements - and reconstructing into working PDF.
Upload Damaged File
Click upload. Pick your corrupted PDF that won't open properly. Accepts PDFs up to 200MB. Immediately begins analyzing file structure. Shows filename and size.
File Analysis
Comprehensive analysis:
- Structure scanning - checks cross-reference tables and object streams
- Content detection - identifies salvageable text, images, pages
- Error identification - locates corrupted objects and broken references
- Damage assessment - determines repair complexity and success probability
Repair Options
Which operations to apply:
- Fix corruption - repair damaged structure and cross-reference tables
- Recover pages - restore missing or corrupted pages from fragments
- Optimize size - remove redundant objects and compress images
- Remove malware - scan and remove embedded scripts and malicious content
- Fix metadata - repair incorrect document properties
- Recover links - restore broken hyperlinks and bookmarks
- Fix fonts - embed missing fonts and fix encoding issues
- Decrypt PDF - remove password protection (if known)
- Repair forms - fix interactive form fields and calculations
- Extract images - recover and optimize embedded images
Recommended Settings
For most corrupted PDFs:
- Fix corruption (essential)
- Recover pages (saves missing content)
- Optimize size (reduces size while repairing)
- Remove malware (security cleanup)
Advanced options for specific issues like broken fonts or encrypted files.
Start Repair
Click "Start Advanced Repair". Tool will:
- Create backup of original
- Isolate corrupted sections from healthy content
- Apply selected repair algorithms
- Rebuild PDF structure from salvageable data
- Optimize repaired document
- Generate new, working PDF
Monitor Progress
Progress indicators:
- Analyzing structure - scanning for damage patterns
- Fixing corruption - repairing broken references and tables
- Optimizing output - cleaning up and compressing
- Progress bar - overall completion percentage
Results
After completion, detailed results:
- Corrupted objects fixed - count of repaired structural elements
- Pages recovered - number of salvaged pages
- File size optimization - percentage reduction
- Status change - from "Corrupted" to "Healthy"
- Download size - size of repaired PDF
Download Repaired File
When successful:
- Click download to save repaired file
- New PDF has "_REPAIRED" added to filename
- Original corrupted file untouched
- Test repaired PDF to ensure it opens correctly
Before and After
Comparison shown:
- File size before and after
- Status change from corrupted to healthy
- Issues resolved count
- Optimization improvements
Common Corruption
Can repair PDFs damaged by:
- Incomplete downloads - stopped midway
- Transfer errors - corruption during email or network transfer
- Storage issues - files from failing hard drives
- Software crashes - saved during application crashes
- Malware infection - embedded malicious code
- Format conversion errors - issues from other conversions
- Encryption problems - password-protected files with issues
Limitations
Note that:
- Severely damaged files may have partial recovery only
- Some formatting might be simplified
- Complex graphics might be optimized differently
- Very old PDF formats may have limited repair options
- Works best with partially corrupted files rather than completely unreadable ones
Security
Docs processed securely:
- 256-bit encryption during transfer and processing
- Automatic file deletion after 1 hour
- No storage of your docs on servers
- Secure processing environment
- Malware scanning included
After Repair
Once you have repaired PDF:
- Open in multiple PDF readers to test compatibility
- Check all pages and content appear correctly
- Verify hyperlinks and bookmarks work
- Test form fields if applicable
- Save backup of repaired version
Can recover important docs that became inaccessible due to corruption. Particularly valuable for salvaging business docs, academic papers, legal files, or personal records that have been damaged. Works by parsing corrupted data, identifying patterns representing PDF structure, creating new clean version with as much recovered content as possible. While not every severely damaged PDF can be fully recovered, many common corruption issues can be fixed. Provides best possible restoration, often recovering majority of document when standard PDF readers fail to open it at all.