Repair PDF
Fix corrupted or damaged PDF files
How to use Repair PDF
Upload your damaged PDF
Click the upload area or drag and drop the PDF file that fails to open or displays errors.
Click Repair PDF
The tool attempts to rebuild the PDF's internal structure and recover its content.
Review the result
Download and open the repaired file to check how much content was successfully recovered.
Download the repaired PDF
Click Download to save the recovered PDF.
Drop a PDF here
We will attempt to repair and clean it
Max 50 MB
What is PDF repair?
'The file is damaged and could not be repaired' is where most people give up. Before you do, one attempt at rebuilding the structure is worth making, because a surprising share of unopenable PDFs are intact documents carrying a broken index.
The repair process rebuilds the PDF's internal structure — cross-reference tables, object streams, and metadata — extracting as much readable content as possible. Results depend on the extent and type of corruption.
Truncation is the most common damage by a wide margin. A download that stops at 94 percent, a USB drive pulled mid-write, a sync client that uploads a partial file and then treats it as authoritative: each leaves a PDF whose bytes are correct up to a point and simply absent after it. Mail servers occasionally mangle large attachments in transit. Ageing spinning disks and flash media develop bad sectors that punch holes into the middle of a file rather than the end. The damage profile matters, because where the corruption sits largely determines what can be recovered.
The tool works by scanning the raw byte stream of the PDF for valid objects, reconstructing the cross-reference table that acts as the file's internal index, and rebuilding the page tree from recovered objects. Minor corruption such as a truncated file trailer or a damaged cross-reference table is almost always recoverable. Moderate corruption that affects individual page objects may result in a repaired file with some missing pages or images. Severe corruption to the beginning of the file, where critical header information lives, is the hardest to repair and may yield only partial results.
Frequently asked questions
Will the repaired PDF contain all my original content?
Not necessarily. Results depend on the type and extent of corruption. Minor corruption from truncated downloads often recovers fully. Severe physical media failures may only recover partial content.
What causes PDF corruption?
Common causes include interrupted downloads, storage device failures, file system errors, email transmission corruption, and software crashes during save. Partially downloaded PDFs are the most common case.
My PDF opens but shows errors — can it still be repaired?
Yes. A PDF that opens but displays rendering errors or missing pages may be partially corrupted. The repair tool can often fix structural issues even in partially functional files.
Is there a file size limit for PDF repair?
The file size limit is 50 MB. Severely corrupted files with many errors may take longer to process.
Can I repair a PDF that was corrupted during email transmission?
Yes. Email-related corruption typically involves truncated data or encoding errors introduced by mail servers. These are among the most recoverable types of damage because the beginning of the file (containing critical header structures) is usually intact. Upload the corrupted attachment and try the repair tool.
Should I try to repair a PDF before other recovery methods?
Yes. This tool is the fastest and simplest first step. If the repair does not recover sufficient content, your next options are to re-download the file from its original source, restore a backup copy from cloud storage version history, or use specialized forensic recovery software for severe physical media damage.