How do I repair a corrupt PDF?

Upload your damaged PDF to the Repair PDF tool; it re-packages the structure and gathers the salvageable content into a new file.

Is every broken file recoverable?

No, success depends on the degree of damage. It's high for files whose structure is broken but content remains; fully deleted data can't be recovered.

Why won't my PDF open?

The most common causes are an interrupted download, a disk/transfer error, a faulty export from an incompatible program, and the file not being fully saved.

How to Repair a Corrupt / Won't-Open PDF: Ways to Recover Content

A "can't open" or "file is corrupt" error on an important document is frustrating. Here's why a PDF breaks and how to recover the salvageable content by re-packaging its structure.

Hitting a "file is damaged" or "can't open" error on an important PDF is maddening. The good news: in most broken PDFs the content is still there — only the file's structure is damaged — and that's often repairable.

Why do PDFs break?

An interrupted download or transfer (the connection dropped).
A USB/disk error or the file not being fully saved.
Editing with an incompatible program or a faulty export.
Email/attachment compression corrupting the file.

Try repairing — step by step

Upload the broken PDF: Add your won't-open file to the Repair PDF tool.
Let the repair run: The tool re-packages the file's structure and gathers the salvageable content.
Download the result: Download the repaired PDF and try opening it. Much of the content may come back.

Repair PDF — Try to repair your won't-open PDF and recover the content.

What to expect

Repair is not always a 100% guarantee — it depends on the degree of damage. Success is high for files whose structure is broken but whose content remains; it can't bring back fully deleted or encrypted data. Still, trying often recovers the document.

If the file is very large after repair, you can shrink it with the compress tool; if it's scanned and the text is gone, you can add a text layer again with OCR.