How to Fix Damaged PDF Files

Written By Lovely Baghel
Published on: September 17th, 2014
Updated on: April 23, 2025

Portable Document Format file! widely known as PDF file, is the most used format to share documents online. If you move back just a few years back, After the fist decade of 21st Century, the most common program to create documents online was MS Word. Though MS Word is still like a hot selling cake, but to send the files through mails or sharing through FTP, PDF has become a reliable option now. Sometimes due to corruption of PDF files it is not possible to open it. So before I tell you how to fix damaged PDF files you must know why it is preferred more than other formats.

Reasons for using PDF Format

One of the basic reasons behind this, is that PDF is not editable by a normal user. Which makes it secure. Since there are many paid tools available online that can edit a PDF file easily, but if you have implemented additional security to your PDF file, even a commercial tool cannot edit it until the security is removed. I too use Adobe Acrobat X, but If the file is secured, I fail editing it.

Pros and Cons of a PDF file

Every step we take, is surrounded by some advantages and some disadvantages as well.

Advantages (Pros)

PDF files are compatible with all the Operating Systems like Windows, Linux, Mac, etc.
It acquires less space, as a PDF file is compact and small in size
You can easily create a PDF document, convert Word document into PDF, or Print an online document into PDF through Google Chrome
Prevents unauthorized users from editing or modifying the document
Comply with the legal requirements of a document
Gives file compression and comes with multiple encryption and security features.

Disadvantages (Cons)

I mentioned above as well, that a PDF cannot be edited easily as compared to other formats like .doc or .docx. People find it difficult to edit these files.
If you want to edit a PDF file, you need to buy a commercial PDF editing tool, the better one is always expensive.
Other documents can easily be accessed or opened with the default programs in the OS package. Whereas to open a PDF document, you need Adobe Acrobat reader or Foxit reader.

PDF file is Corrupted?

So did you land on this article because your PDF file is corrupted? Do you need a tested solution to perform a PDF repair? Well! The above 336 words might be boring to read, but it was important for me to share why we do we use what we use.

The reason behind the corruption of your PDF file must be connection failure while downloading from internet FTP or network file sharing. Though PDF is not that prone to virus attack but, it is often the reason behind PDF corruption. Apart from all this, power outage, system or HDD failure while the file is open can also play a major role behind the PDF errors. Many people keep their PDF in an archive file, it can be a zip, rar, or 7z file. But when it is the bad day, even the archive file gets corrupted. You may follow the article to repair archive file as well.

PDF gives Error?

Are you facing any of the errors listed below?

Format error: not a pdf or corrupted
File is corrupt or damaged
This file contains information not understood by the viewer
There was an error processing the page. A font contains a bad cmap-encoding
There was an error opening this document
The root object is missing or invalid
File does not begin with %PDF
PDF file is not readable with Acrobat Reader

If the error you are facing is listed above, than you are on the right track. If you think that it is a unique error you are facing, the solution will still work for you. I request you to mention the error in the comment section below. This will help us to serve you much better.