Your PDF will not open or is damaged? What you can do
Last updated 26 September 2026
"The file is damaged and could not be repaired." Before you give up on it: most damaged PDFs still hold all their pages, and only the part that says where they are is broken.
Why PDFs break
A download stopped early. A file copied from a failing USB stick. An email program that added something to the front of the file. A program that changed part of the file and forgot to update its index. In all four cases the pages are usually still inside - a reader just cannot find them.
Try to repair it
- Open Repair PDF and drop the damaged file. It is only read, not changed, and not uploaded.
- Read the check list. Each line says what is fine and what is wrong.
- Press Repair it. The pages are copied into a new, clean file with a fresh index.
- Open the repaired file in Open a PDF and look through every page before you delete the old one.
If only the pages can be saved
Sometimes the document cannot be rebuilt, but its pages can still be drawn. Then a second button appears: Rescue the pages as pictures. You get your pages back, but the words become part of pictures. Run the result through OCR a scan to make the words searchable and copyable again.
If nothing can be found
A file cut off very early, or overwritten, has no document left in it, and no tool at any price can invent one. You will be told that plainly. Look for another copy: the original email, the downloads folder of another computer, a cloud backup, or the program that made the file, which may have its own recovery copy.