Word Troubleshoot: How to Recover Corrupted Word Files

Last Updated: September 11th, 2023By Categories: Microsoft Office Recovery
How to Recover Corrupted Word Files

A Word document is fine until it’s not. Digital files like a Word file can be fragile when you fail to store and launch properly. Also, viruses and malware will turn the fine Word document into a corrupted file that cannot be opened anymore.

What would you do if you want to once again launch this fine Word file to read the texts on it, scroll up and down, or resume your writing? Of course, repair the corrupted Word file. To bring your Word file back to fine, check out the methods below and try them out.

Tip: Something You Should Check Before Start to Fix a Damaged Word File

Before you apply any methods to fix your corrupted Word file, there’s something you should do.

First of all, you need to make sure it’s the file that goes wrong. Sometimes, if your MS Word software is bugged, it will fail to open any Word files and prompt you with the following notification.

Recover a Corrupted Word File

Well, it mentions that the Word file may be corrupted. So, it may be not.

To find out the truth, open another DOC/DOCX file with your Microsoft Word software. If the same notification pops out, you should re-install your MS Word.

Method 1: Recover a Corrupted Word File with echoshare Data Recovery

On the internet, there’re some third-party applications that are designed to recover corrupted Word and other documents (Excel, Powerpoint, etc). Among all those big and small names you can see online, echoshare Data Recovery for Windows & Mac is nothing short of all the competitors.

This is a handy data recovery tool that is able to recover your damaged Word file back to normal. It aims at the best results and the least cost for both Windows and Mac users.

echoshare Data Recovery

Recover deleted, corrupted, or lost data from any device

√ Supports Video, Audio, Document, Image, Email, Archive

√ Covers USB drives, hard drive, Android & Camera SD Card

√ Compatible with NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, EXT

Featuring all-rounded and fast recovery, this kit recovers photos, videos, audio, archives, system files, and most importantly, documents like Word, Excel, and Powerpoint in minutes. Start the program, set up a scan to search for the corrupted Word file, and recover it in seconds.

No matter where the Word file lies, your computer hard drive, an external drive, a USB stick, an SD card, or email conversations, this app covers all of them. You can recover your Word document from any of those mentioned devices.

Download it on your computer, Mac or Windows, and start to recover your corrupted Word file!

Steps to Recover a Corrupted Word File

Step 1: Set up a scan for the corrupted Word file

Launch echoshare Data Recover after it’s installed. On the initial screen, set up for the data scan.

  1. How does the file(s) lost: Choose I Don’t Know, or tick USB devices/SD Card when the Word file is on a USB drive, SD card, or portable hard drive;
  2. Check all file types: Uncheck this option, and tick only the Document option.

Click Next to proceed.

Recover Corrupted Word File

Step 2: Scan for the corrupted file

On the new screen, tick a disk or partition that the Word file is on. Click Scan to start.

Recover Corrupted Word File

Step 3: Recover the corrupted Word file

When the scan is complete, locate the Enter Name or Path here inbox, enter the name of the Word file, and click Filter to quickly locate it. Then, click Recover to restore this corrupted document. Choose a new destination for the recovered file.

Recover Corrupted Word File

Wait for the completion and open the Word file afterward. You can delete the corrupted file after the new fine Word file is accessible.

echoshare Data Recovery

Recover deleted, corrupted, or lost data from any device

√ Supports Video, Audio, Document, Image, Email, Archive

√ Covers USB drives, hard drive, Android & Camera SD Card

√ Compatible with NTFS, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, EXT

Method 2: Repair a Corrupted Word Document with Stellar Repair for Word

When a Word file is corrupted, let’s repair it with a professional file repair tool, like the one offered by Stellar.

Stellar for Word Repair, an easy-to-use repair tool for files with DOC and DOCX extensions, is able to fix multiple corruption errors. With it, you can revert everything on the Word file, including

  • Content: texts, images, hyperlinks, logos, videos
  • Format: fonts, headers, footers, margins, paddings

In short, it brings back the original Word file.

Recover Corrupted Word File

Worried about its effect? Don’t. Making the recoverable data visible to you in advance, the program provides a clear and complete report to you. You may choose Full documents, Filtered Test, or Raw Text to preview the result based on your need.

Get this Word repair tool right away to fix your corrupted Word document!

Steps to Repair a Corrupted Word Document

Step 1

Launch the program. On the initial screen, you can see a pop-out window. Hit the Browse or Search button on it and locate the target Word file, import it.

Click Scan to let the program analyze the chance of repairing this Word file.

Recover Corrupted Word File

Step 2

When the analysis is complete, preview the file. See if it satisfies you or not.

Recover Corrupted Word File

To repair the file, locate the Save button on the top left corner. Then decide a destination to save the output Word file.

Recover Corrupted Word File

Walkaround: Extract the Text From the Corrupted Word File

When the corrupted Word file is filled with pure text, no image or hyperlink is attached, you can try to extract all the texts from it.

To do that, simply launch a Word-to-Text website and start the extraction then. You can find a lot of these websites online, choose the No.1 that shows on your search result.

FAQs

There’re some critical reasons that will lead to a corrupted Word file, check these out:

  1. While editing a Word file, a blackout hits, and your computer is shut down without saving the file properly, the Word file may get corrupted.
  2. Besides, a virus or malware attack will affect the stability of the Word file too.
  3. Meanwhile, if you try to add some files in rare formats, the Word file gets corrupted sometimes because it fails to convert that attachment.
  4. You exit the Word program when the saving is not complete. A similar reason to this: if you download the Word file from Email, browser, or other apps, the file gets broken if you shut down that program before the download is complete.

The iWork Suite on Mac has an equivalent for Microsoft’s Word and that is Pages. Just like its counterpart, Pages lets you create and edit documents.

You can download Word on the Mac App Store. However, to freely use the app, you will need an Office 360 subscription.

  1. Access the Design tab and select Watermark.
  2. Templates are provided on the program. But if you want to make your own, hit the Custom Watermark option.
  3. From there, you type in your desired watermark or use a picture.
  4. You can then adjust the visibility of your watermark and position. And when you are done hit Apply.
  1. Open File Explorer and access AppData then choose Roaming.
  2. Next, click Microsoft then find Word or UnsavedFiles.
  3. In that folder, your unsaved files should be found.

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