How to Repair A Corrupted Word Document in Windows 11/10

Word is a word processing application of Microsoft that allows you to create text, including letters, reports, books, etc., to edit & format any existing documents, and many other things with its built-in features.

But sometimes, your Word files can get corrupted. This page offers some Word fixing solutions that work perfectly to fix corrupted word document in Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7. Read on to get more details.

How do I know if my Word file is corrupted?

• ⏳ While opening a Word doc, your system has stopped responding.
• ⁉️ The layout & format of the Word doc keeps changing.
• 📑 The Word doc appears with a lot of unreadable files.
• 💢 An "Unspecified error" message appears.
• ⛔ The Doc/Docx file can't load in Word.

What causes a Corrupted Word Document?

Once you identify any of your corrupted word document, you must find the exact reason behind the corruption so that you can go for the specific solutions to repair corrupted word file. So, let's find out what causes Word File corruption.

• 🔡 Repeated renumbering in the existing document pages.
• 🔁 The repetition of "Redoes'' on the page can break the document.
• 🖥️ Your system suddenly crashes.
• 👽 Any malware or virus infection occurs.
• ⚠️ The word document is not saved correctly.
• 🔌 Sudden power outages.
• ⚙️ Any forced system updates can make your file disappear from the system after the restart.
• 🚫 Sometimes, your system's hardware failure could be the cause.

Some other things can also be suspected as the corruption of the Word file. So, how do you fix a corrupted word file? You will find the answer. Just keep reading the article.

How to Fix an Unreadable Word document

While accessing any Word document on your system, if your Word file suddenly becomes unreadable, it indicates that your Word document might get corrupted or damaged. Here are four ways to help you fix corrupt word documents

Ways 1. To fix corrupted Word document via Recover Text from Any File Option.

1. While opening the Word software, head to the Word File and select "Open."
2. Select the "Browse" option and move to the Word file with the unreadable word document.
3. While expanding the "All Word Documents" drop-down menu, select the "Recover Text from Any File" option. Hit the "Open" option and wait a while to open the corrupted file.

Ways 2. Repair a Corrupt Word File by changing the document format and saving it to word later.

1. Run word, and open the corrupted file.
2. After you open the file, again go to the Ribbon, select the Save As an option, and click on Other Formats.
3. In the file type, select the Rich Text Format (*.rtf or *.txt), save the file, and then close it.
4. Now go to the new RTF file and again select the Save as an option, select the Word document format, and rename the file and save it.
5. Now you have to verify that the strange behavior of the file does not exist anymore.

Ways 3. To solve corrupted Word files by copying it into a new File except for the last paragraph

1. First, create a new document.
2. Open the corrupted document and copy the paper's contents except for the last paragraph.
3. Paste the corrupted File's contents into the new File you created in step 1. This will fix a corrupted word.

Ways 4. To fix corrupted documents in word by close the templates and add-Ins dialog box

1. Open the document in word. Click on the File menu and select options.
2. In the options, click on Add-Ins. In the Add-Ins, choose the Templates option in the View and Manage Office Add-Ins in the Manage Box and click on Go.
3. The templates used will be listed in the Document Template Box. Check the list and if there is a template named Normal.dotm. Click on the template to open it.
4. Click on Ok to close the Templates and Add-Ins dialog box and exit word.
5. Now you have to verify that this method fixes the corrupted word file. In a word, click Ribbon and then options and open the corrupted word file.

How to Open and repair an Unopenable Word file

Instead of getting deleted, there are situations where your Word document gets corrupt, and you can't open it. Several reasons can make the document damaged or the document template corrupted. So, you will get the solutions here.

Solutions 1. To repair corrupted Word documents using the "Open and Repair" command

1. Head to the File > Open > Browse> location/folder where your word file is stored. Don't opt for the "Recent" option to open the file since it won't take you to the "Open Dialog Box."
2. After hitting on the file, click the "Down Arrow" sign given next to the "Open" option. Then select the "Open and Repair" section.

Solutions 2. To fix unopenable Word by prohibiting the running of automatic macros

Since the word files support macro commands, if the macro command is used for encryption or there is an error in loading the macro command, the document cannot be opened. At this time, in "Windows Explorer," hold down the Shift key and then double-click the Word document to prevent the automatic macro from running so the document can be opened.

How to Fix Word Won't Save Document

Sometimes, when using Word, it can't be saved suddenly. We must not close it without saving it, so all the content will be invalid. How to solve it at this time?

Ways 1. There are too many junk files in the system, resulting in insufficient system disk space and unable to perform the save operation. You need to clear the junk files: if you have used the system optimization software, you can delete them directly with the system optimization software; if not, you need to go to C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Temp to delete junk files.

Ways 2. The temp environment variable of the system has been changed, and it needs to be changed to the default setting to solve the problem.

1. Navigate to: File > Options > Add-ins
2. Click the "Go" button to the right of manage "COM Add-ins".
3. In the COM Add-Ins dialog box, uncheck all add-ins and click the OK button.
4. Go back to Word again, then copy everything you wrote.
5. Restart Word and create a new document, paste the contents and save.

Repair Corrupted Word Documents Online

With the OnlineFile.Repair tool, you can repair a corrupted word document by uploading the document file to the service using any web browser. It will analyze the file and extract and save the maximum text data from the corrupted files. With this method, you would receive your corrupted Word doc instantly and immediately. So, let's see the advantages and disadvantages of this method to get the best out of this solution.

Steps:

1. When selecting the file option, choose the text file. Give your email address.
2. Hit on "Next" & wait for a moment to complete the file recovery process. Once the process is complete, download the recovered Word file.
3. The recovered text will save to a new file having *.docx extension, which is the new file format of Microsoft office.

If this tool doesn't help you, you can also go to check the other repair corrupted word files online tools.

Recover Corrupt Word Documents with Data Recovery Software

Regardless of the content of your Word doc or whether you backed it up, with the intelligent technology of iBeesoft data recovery software, you can recover a corrupt Word file from any situation. It supports over 1000 file types. You can repair corrupt Word documents of any file format.

Steps:

1. Download, install and launch the iBeesoft Data Recovery on your PC. Attach the external hard drive to your device if you want to restore a corrupt Word document from it.
2. After that, target the file types such as corrupt word docs you want to restore. Next, select the "Go to Settings" option to see the supported file types to recover. Except "Document," uncheck the other options and go for "Confirm."
3. A window with a list of internal and external hard drives will appear. Once you select the disk to have the corrupt Word document, the software will start scanning to recover the corrupted Word file.
4. You will now get the list of found Word documents. While previewing the list, select the Word document you like to recover. Next, go for the "Recover" option & save the recovered Word document on your system.

Tips for preventing word file corruption in the future

To bypass the hassle of recovering corrupt files, you must take precautionary measures to avoid any Word documentation corruption. Even though it is easy to fix a corrupted Docx file with the methods mentioned above, it is easier to prevent any Word file corruption.

• 🏷️ Use the same software version while transforming files between different applications.
• ☂️ Keep a consistent backup of the file for future recovery.
• 🔍 While using the secure transfer protocol, you can check the accuracy of the received data.
• 🔋 To avoid sudden power outages, you must use UPS.
• 🆕 Always use the latest version of Microsoft office.
• ✅ Avoid using "Track Changes" often for collaborative editing.
• 🆎 Instead of using direct formatting like bold, font change, etc., go for defining character, paragraph style, etc.
• ➡️ Instead of using the drag & drop editing option, go for cut & paste.
• 📜 Save documents in the latest .docx format.

Conclusion

If you are in a hurry and any of your important Word documents have become corrupted suddenly, it is always safest and fastest to go for the iBeesoft Data Recovery software to recover a corrupt word document with a few clicks. But, no matter the file type or corruption situation, you can instantly fix a corrupted Docx file with this word file recovery software.

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