Repair PDF
Fix and recover damaged or corrupted PDF files.
or click to browse — supports PDF files up to 100MB
How to use
- 1 Drop or click to upload your file
- 2 Adjust options if shown
- 3 Click Run Tool
- 4 Download your result instantly
- ✓ Files up to 1GB
- ✓ Unlimited jobs/hour
- ✓ Batch processing
- ✓ Priority support
Files are processed securely and permanently deleted within 1 hour. We never store, read, or share your documents.
Why this works
Fix a corrupt or damaged PDF that won\u2019t open, throws errors in your PDF reader, or displays as a blank document. Repair scans the file structure and rebuilds what it can recover.
PDFs can break for several reasons. Partial download: a network interruption truncated the file mid-transfer; the file is missing its trailing index and many readers refuse to open it. Storage corruption: the file was on a disk that developed bad sectors, USB drive that got yanked mid-write, or cloud sync that conflicted; some bytes inside the file are now garbage. Software bugs: some PDF generators (older or poorly-implemented ones) produce files that violate the PDF spec in subtle ways \u2014 Adobe Reader is forgiving and opens them; Preview is strict and refuses; the file is technically broken but mostly readable.
Repair attempts three increasingly aggressive recovery passes. Pass 1 rebuilds the cross-reference table (the index at the end of the file that tells the reader where each page starts). This fixes most partial-download cases without any content loss. Pass 2 parses every page object independently and rebuilds the document around what successfully parsed; pages that are too corrupt to parse are dropped from the output. Pass 3 extracts whatever text and image content can be recovered and produces a new PDF containing that content, even if the original page structure is unrecoverable.
What\u2019s recoverable. Typical partial-download truncation: nearly always fully recoverable with no content loss. Single-byte corruption in metadata: usually fully recoverable. Single-byte corruption in page content streams: page may be partially or fully unrecoverable; other pages remain intact. Bulk corruption across many pages: only the recoverable text and images come through, layout is lost.
If your PDF is encrypted (password-protected) and won\u2019t open with the correct password, repair won\u2019t help \u2014 the issue is cryptographic mismatch, not file structure. For that case, contact whoever generated the file for a fresh copy.
The original file is read but unchanged. Repair produces a new output PDF; the input stays where it was. Keep both side-by-side until you\u2019ve verified the repaired output is acceptable.
How it works
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1Upload the damaged PDFDrop the broken file into the upload box. The tool accepts any PDF, even partial or truncated ones.
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2Run the repairPress Repair. The job runs three recovery passes \u2014 cross-reference rebuild, page-by-page parsing, content extraction \u2014 and finishes in 5\u201310 seconds.
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3Compare to originalThe output is a new PDF. Open and verify pages render correctly; some pages may have been dropped if they were unrecoverable.
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4Download the repaired PDFIf the recovery succeeded, save the new PDF. Keep your original until you\u2019ve confirmed the repaired version meets your needs.
Real-world uses
Anyone with a truncated download
A PDF you downloaded won\u2019t open. The download was probably interrupted \u2014 Repair recovers it.
IT support
Recover PDFs from users\u2019 corrupted USB drives, dead laptops, or sync-conflicted cloud storage.
Researchers
Older archived PDFs that won\u2019t open in modern readers \u2014 repair them to make the content accessible again.
Lawyers
Discovery materials arriving as broken PDFs need to be recoverable before any review can proceed.
Common questions
What kinds of PDF corruption can be fixed?
Partial-download truncation (the most common): nearly always fully recoverable. Metadata corruption: usually fully recoverable. Page-content corruption: that specific page may be partially recoverable; other pages remain intact. Bulk corruption: only text and recoverable images come through, layout is lost.
Why won\u2019t my PDF open in Preview but works in Adobe?
Some PDF generators produce files that technically violate the PDF spec in small ways. Adobe Reader is forgiving and ignores these violations; Apple Preview is strict. Repair re-encodes the document cleanly so it opens everywhere.
Can repair recover an encrypted PDF whose password is lost?
No \u2014 password-protection is cryptography, not corruption. Without the correct password, the document cannot be decrypted by repair or any other tool. Ask the original sender for a fresh copy.
Will all pages survive?
Usually yes. Unrecoverable individual pages get dropped from the output \u2014 the rest remain. The repair report mentions any dropped pages so you know exactly what was lost.
Does it work on truncated downloads?
Yes \u2014 this is the most common use case. A PDF download interrupted mid-transfer typically has all its page content but is missing the trailing cross-reference index. Repair\u2019s first pass rebuilds that index, recovering the full document with zero content loss in most cases.
Will the repaired PDF be identical to the original intent?
Pixel-identical for fully recoverable repairs. For partial recoveries, content is preserved but layout may shift slightly because the repaired file is re-encoded. Verify visually before treating the repair as final.