Various positive traits of PDF files make it a popular choice of file format for many users.
Which is why, it is much more bothering to lose such an important file. But worry not, we have brought you a perfect guide for you to resolve this issue.
Imagine you made a beautiful presentation document but it looks completely different as you were about to present it. The pictures are not aligned, and the text formatting is incorrect.
To cope with such a situation, Adobe brought us the PDF (Portable Document Format) file format and we are all grateful for it. It is portable, preserves text and image formatting, and is independent of the software application, hardware, and Operating system.
So, if your PDF file gets corrupted, it can be quite bothersome. But no need to fret, there are ways to handle such a situation and resolve your problem.
Before we dive into repairing the corrupted PDF file, let's take a step back. We first need to understand what is file corruption and whether your PDF file is in fact corrupt or not.
To achieve this, there are some steps you should consider taking before you start repair attempts. They will help you identify whether your PDF file is corrupt or not. These steps include.
If none of these steps work, your PDF is likely corrupt and you should move on to repair methods.
Repairing corrupt PDF files can be a challenging task, but it's not impossible. Given below are some methods employing which you can repair corrupt PDF files with ease.
You can Restore the Previous File Version of a file. To do this follow the steps.
There are many free PDF Repair tools present online. The steps you need to follow to repair are mostly the same irrespective of the tool. Upload the corrupt PDF file. A repaired copy of the file will be given after process completion. You can Preview and Download this copy.
It is not guaranteed that any of these methods would work. So What should you do in such a situation? No need to panic we have some tips for you that you can use as a last resort.
There are some steps you can take in case none of the above methods work for you.
But do note these methods may not always work and can sometimes increase the extent of file corruption. Hence, we advise you to make a copy of your PDF file beforehand.
You can try changing the format of the file to retrieve data. Convert your PDF file to Word to recover its contents. In case your Word file is also corrupt, you can attempt to repair the Word file. To convert PDF to a Word file.
The converted file is in Word format and can be edited.
Similar to the above-mentioned method you can convert the file into an image. Instead of selecting the Format as DOCX select JPG format and click Convert to JPG.
Once you obtain the image file you can use the OCR function of Adobe or any other third-party OCR application to create a new PDF using this Image.
You can edit the raw data of a file using a HEX editor. You can open your file in a HEx editor and check if the file header is correct. In case the file header is incorrect, file corruption may be originating from this discrepancy.
You can easily edit the bytes to fix the issue. A PDF file header starts with 0 bytes and consists of at least 8 bytes. These first 8 bytes define the file as a PDF along with its version.
For example- if the header byte is 25 50 44 46 2d 31 2e it will translate as %PDF-1.which is a standard for PDFs. In case you encounter some other value you can change it.
Always be careful when using HEX editors. Unknowingly making changes in the HEX code of a file can make a file corrupt or damaged.
In case none of the methods worked for you then I guess it's time to contact Data Recovery and File Repair professionals.
But you should keep in mind not all corrupted files can be repaired. Depending upon the extent of corruption some files are beyond repair.
Hence, you should always keep a backup of your data.
We have provided you with all the tools necessary to repair corrupted PDF files. Keep in mind not all files can be repaired. In such cases, you can try data recovery methods.
In case you are not able to repair or recover your files and are facing problems, feel free to contact us. We are always happy to help.