How to Recover Damaged or Corrupted Adobe PDF File in windows 10

PDF file corrupted not opening? Here is how to repair a damaged or corrupted PDF file and get your important data back.

As of today, PDF documents are more protected and secured than any other document format. Owing to their high layer of security, PDF files are used for saving important details. Almost every computer user uses PDF documents to save their details that must be secured using passwords. However, PDF files sometimes become corrupted or damaged owing to some common reasons, and many people are at a loss regarding how to recover their PDF files. To discover various manual ways to recover a damaged PDF file (PDF document features, manual fixing or recovery program https://pdf.recoverytoolbox.com/) and why it becomes corrupted, keep reading!

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PDF file corrupted

What is a PDF file or document?

PDF stands for Portable Document Format a versatile file format created by adobe that gives an easy and reliable way to present and exchange documents. PDF files are primarily meant for viewing, not editing that add an extra layer of security on your document. Nowadays most popular browsers chrome, Microsoft edge, firefox or safari offer build-in PDF viewers to open PDF documents easily.

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Features of PDF Document

PDF files cannot be compared with other files because they offer several layers of protection that other files do not. PDF files also have other very useful features as listed below:

  1. PDF files can be used on various operating systems including Unix, Windows, and Mac. It is extremely easy to transfer PDF  files using storage devices, via mail, over a network, etc.
  1. Did you know that the PDF file can be corrected manually and create signatures, inscriptions and insert pictures without any advanced settings?

PDF files have file encryption which makes it impossible for unauthorized persons to alter, edit,  copy or print these documents. Therefore, PDF file format enhances the protection level of your documents

  1. It opens on any device with any operating system exactly in the form in which it was created;
  2. A format viewer is often pre-installed on the computer if the device came with the operating system. If not, it is available for download from the Adobe Systems developer site and it’s completely free;
  3. Takes up little space on the hard drive, because it supports many compression algorithms;
  4. Security: the user can configure security settings for his file, for example, prohibit printing, prohibit editing, use an electronic signature to determine the authenticity of a document, etc.

Many digital documents are vulnerable to malware attacks and often become corrupted due to harmful content effects. PDF document files are not immune to the aforementioned attacks and harmful content effects. So, let’s discuss the major factors that are often responsible for the damage of PDF files.

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Why is my PDF file corrupted?

Below are the reasons why PDF files become corrupted or damaged:

  • If the hard drive and USB drive fail simultaneously, the PDF file will surely become corrupted. Issues such as extreme heating of hardware, a short circuit, etc can result in the failure of the hard drive.
  • Inappropriate system shutdown and a sudden power outage can also lead to the damage of PDF files.
  • Viruses and other malware attack a file in a computer and either corrupt it by modifying or overwriting it.
  • Unsuccessful and inappropriate downloads of PDF files can also make the files become corrupted. This may occur if the Internet connection is not good enough.

Imperfect downloads cause the interruption of the file structure, thus destroying the structure of the PDF file.

The aforementioned are the major factors often responsible for the corruption or damage of PDF files. Let’s now take a look at how to fix or recover a corrupted or damaged PDF file.

How to Recover a Damaged PDF File?

Repair Corrupted or Damaged PDF File

PDF file corrupted and won’t open on your PC? We recommend Re-download the PDF file and open it again. or, if it’s an attachment, request that the e-mail be sent again.

Check Reader Services

If your PDF files won’t open, the first step you should take is to check to see whether the services used to read these PDF files, such as Adobe PDF Reader, Adobe Acrobat, etc., are working perfectly or not.

Try open the document with your default web browsers such as chrome, edge or firefox or safari.

In addition, we recommend reinstall the PDF viewer such as adobe acrobat.

Make Use of Backup Feature

You can use the in-built OS backup feature if you are working with a PDF file on a device with Windows 10. You should first select the backup of your PDF files. After selecting the backup, you can seamlessly recover the damaged PDF files to their previous version by taking the following steps:

Recover data from windows backup

Bring Back or Restore the Previous Version

In Windows OS: Right-click on PDF, then click -> Previous Versions.

Restore previous version

Here, you are going to see a list of all previous versions of PDF files. Then, click on each of these versions, open it and check out if it’s the version you are looking for. After you have identified the correct version of the file, press Restore, and the file will be restored on your system.

Recover PDF text data using Notepad

Also you can recover the text (and only the text, not your graphical data) in your PDF document using the Notepad application on any Windows PC.

  1. Right-click on the corrupted PDF file, choose the “Open With” option, and find Notepad on the list.
  2. The Notepad app will open your PDF file, as much as it can be opened, and you will see a lot of code mixed with text.
  3. Your job is to separate this code from your text – which could take a long time, depending on the size of the document and your ability to sift the data from the code.

The above-mentioned are the three, free manual ways of fixing damaged or corrupted PDF files.

However, if the problem persists with the reader services, the next step will be to try a PDF Recovery online service. It can help save your time and energy. However, it attracts a fee. The choice is yours!.

Recover a Damaged PDF File using Recovery Toolbox for PDF

Recover a damaged PDF file using Recovery Toolbox for PDF is one of the easiest online programs you can ever see. It is a go-to tool for recovering an unreadable PDF file that contains vital information.

PDF repair

Stepping into the website you just need to push one of the bottoms:

Both of the ways have their own features. For example, if you want a quick recovery of one or two damaged PDF files it is better to use Online File Repair on a website.

But, if you have a bigger amount of damaged files and you want them to stay secure, we recommend download and install the program to your computer. And after payment, you just insert a unique key that you will receive on your email.

PDF files are very useful for saving content or document in a secured form that unauthorized users cannot open.  So far, we have outlined the main factors that often cause the damage or corruption of PDF files,  and we have given you tips to manually recover a corrupted PDF file. I do hope that you will find this write-up very helpful.

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