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How To Open The Corrupted DOCX File – Recovery Tips

Zoey Peregrine

Very few of us remember the time when handwriting was an everyday routine. People were used to writing more than just a few lines in a note. That was around 10-15 years ago. Most of those who caught this will agree that writing is time and effort taking. Moreover, after a week, you can hardly recognize your scribbles. Now we’re living in the 21st century when we can take advantage of various means of technical progress. We don’t need to write manually anymore as it’s enough to open Word or any other text editor. Still, there is a significant issue: the .doc and .docx files can suffer from errors and then how to open the corrupted DOCX file?. Probably, our generation couldn’t see such great novels, as “Anna Karenina” or “Gone with the Wind” if they have been written in Word editor. Just imagine, you’re saving your paper and go to sleep. Trying to access it the next day, you see the following.

or 

No need to remind that popular Microsoft product is ruining text documents quite often. To save your manuscripts, you may use one of the proven methods from the list below:

  1.  View in a draft mode (option of Microsoft Word).
  2. Text from a file (integrated option).
  3. Open and repair (MW function).
  4. Recovery Toolbox for Word
  5. Online tool for recovery

How To Open The Corrupted DOCX File – If The Damage Is Caused By Occasional Pressing

In practice, there may be various reasons for file corruption. In most situations, it’s not the result of your uncontrolled actions. Probably, some power problems took place while saving, or a crash is caused by this or that system error, or even the file moved to the BSOD by itself. Unfortunately, the negative impact of the listed factors is inevitable.

Notice! Always use autosave, create copies and save them on alternative media sources through the current version of the software and .docx version (it’s stronger to various stresses in comparison with .doc). 

The simple hacks that are familiar even to a newbie. Most users don’t consider the consequences in advance, which leads to unexpected losses. Well, if you deal with this article, most likely you are looking for an effective solution.

Ways Of File Recovery

First, find the size values of the processed version by right-clicking on it (properties – details – size) and compare it with real parameters. Thus, if the corrupted version contained on average 100 written pages and additional images, tables, etc, and the outcome weight is around 4-5 kilobytes, it means that there are zero chances to restore the file. Data recovery is possible only on the initial base. The content loss may be a result of unsuccessful saving to a flash drive. If you have the backup, you can avoid rewriting!

What about the procedure itself? Word corruption is divided into superficial or deep. In the first case, even simple manipulations may help to bring back the whole document. If the damage is strong, there is no means to receive the outcome in its initial state. You may try to extract the text itself, all the rest media will be lost. Let’s come to the point.

If Some Chances Still Remain

Try to open the corrupted DOCX file as a draft with no links update. For this: Word – View panel – Draft. 

Go to File Options, select Advanced, find Show document content, check the section Use draft fonts. Choose Show field codes instead of the values. 

Roll down to the Advanced, chose Update automatic links at open.

Confirm the action by clicking OK, restart the program,  give a corrupted file a second chance. The next solution is to insert a corrupted file into an alive one. For this, create a new document, paste tab in the text section, chose  Object, then Text from file option. Open the broken file from the dialog window.

Also, you can turn to the integrated tool of the editor. Enter the program, chose File – Open in the dialog box, indicate the placement of the sample you want to recover, choose Open and Repair. Wait for the result.

If The Chances Are Zero

In the last Word updates, there is one useful option available to Recover Text from any File. It enables getting text content out of files even with serious errors. Thus, this solution is considered much more efficient than the previous ones.

The procedure is similar: 

This method is suitable only for text saving. It has nothing to do with other data types.

How To Open The Corrupted DOCX File – What To Do If None Of The Solutions Worked

Still, there is a chance to save the paper. We’re talking about professional services. Even if it’s not for free, you’ll get all that is possible to get out of the corrupted file. But, even if you turn to specialists, don’t expect too much. Neither of the third-party team will bring back the file in its initial state. The good point is that you’ll get at least the written part. 

We should admit, that such services are much more effective in comparison with defaulted functions of the system. Due to the huge popularity of services for data recovery, there is quite a wide range of offers in the marketplace of software. A question comes: how to choose a quality one? If you want to save your time and cash, trust the proven command of Recovery Toolbox from the beginning. (https://word.recoverytoolbox.com/repair-word/). 

This company has a good reputation among all the others due to the development of innovative algorithms for corrupted data processing. What’s important, they offer quite affordable prices. There are two versions of the Recovery Toolbox for Microsoft Word. You can use both the online version and the desktop utility. 

In the first case, you need to upload the corrupted document to the web-resource directly (https://word.recoverytoolbox.com/online/), enter the email, and pay $10. You’ll receive the recovered version via the mailbox. Such a solution is perfect for those who need to recover just one file. For precessing two or more samples, it’s recommended to purchase a desktop software. It costs $27. 

All you need to do is to select a file for recovery, complete the Analyze, and Start Recovery procedure. After that, it’s necessary to indicate the most suitable way to save the result.

Alternative Solution For Advanced PC Users

An extra chapter should be devoted to file damage related to XML tags. It’s a rather huge topic, but we’ll cover only the key points. A Word document is an archive containing numerous elements which form a document altogether. Thus, any archiver can open it. According to this feature, when opening the file, the difference between the name in the end tag and the start one is generated as an error. After that, the row and column parameters are specified. Then, the corrupted document needs to be unzipped.

Then, open the file in .xml with the program of Notepad+++ (free version). In the data of row and column which is pointed as an error, you’ll see a few tags with an incorrect closing order. If this order is corrected, the file will become normal as well. Consider, that the first tag closes last and so on. 

Be patient and you’ll save your masterpiece!

How To Open The Corrupted DOCX File – Summing Up

Ways to recover a broken Word document

  1. Download on your PC the Recovery Toolbox for Word from https://word.recoverytoolbox.com/repair-word/ 
  2. Complete the installation.
  3. Find a corrupted file. 
  4. Start the Analyze.
  5. Complete recovery procedure.
  6. Export the item to Microsoft Word.