Free online PDF tool
Repair a damaged PDF
A PDF that will not open is usually not as lost as it looks. Interrupted downloads, bad email transfers, and failing drives tend to damage the file's index rather than its content — the pages are often still in there, just unreachable.
This tool tries two different engines in order, and that ordering is the whole idea: they fail on different things. One rebuilds the document structure and can recover files that have been cut short; the other is more forgiving about broken headers. Whichever succeeds first is what you get, and the structure rebuild is always tried first because it keeps your text selectable.
Open Repair PDFRuns in your browser — your files are never uploaded.
How to Repair PDF
- Select the PDF that will not open.
- Press "Repair PDF" and wait while each engine is tried in turn.
- Read the result: it will tell you whether the structure was rebuilt or the pages were recovered as images.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of damage can it fix?
Broken cross-reference tables, missing trailers, stray bytes before the header, a missing header, and many truncated files. Damage that destroyed the page content itself cannot be undone by anything.
What is the difference between the two results?
A structure rebuild gives you a normal PDF with selectable text. Visual recovery rebuilds pages as images — you get your pages back, but the text becomes part of the picture. The first is always preferred.
It says the file is beyond recovery. Is that final?
For this tool, yes. That message means neither engine could read any page. If you have an older copy, a version in an email, or the original source document, that will always beat any repair.
Could repairing make things worse?
No. Your original file is never modified — a repaired copy is downloaded alongside it.