What can actually be repaired?

Damage to the file's structure — a broken cross-reference table, a truncated ending, an invalid index. The page content is usually intact in those cases and only the map to it is broken.

Missing data. A file that lost half its bytes lost the pages in them, and nothing can reconstruct content that is not present. Encryption with a lost password is a separate problem that repair does not address.

Some pages came back and others did not.

That is the normal outcome for a damaged file, and usually the best available one. The recovered pages are the objects that were still readable. Check the page count against what the document should contain.

No. The repair runs in this browser tab, which is worth knowing given that a document valuable enough to attempt recovering is rarely one to hand to a stranger's server.

Repair PDF

Rebuild a damaged PDF and recover the pages that survived.

Everything runs inside your browser. Your files never leave your device.

Drop your file here

.pdf · they stay on this device

Ask about Repair PDF

Questions about what this tool does, which option to pick, or what it can and cannot handle.

The question you type here is sent to an AI provider to be answered — your files and whatever you put in the tool above are not, and the assistant cannot see them. Answers are generated and can be wrong. The tool itself is not guessing: it runs deterministic code on your device.

About the Repair PDF

A PDF that will not open is usually not destroyed. The format has a cross-reference table at the end pointing at every object in the file, and if that table is damaged or the file was truncated, a reader refuses to open a document whose content is largely intact.

This attempts a repair by rebuilding that structure: scanning the file for the objects that are actually present, reconstructing the index from what it finds, and writing a valid document.

That works for the common causes. An interrupted download that truncated the file. A transfer that corrupted a few bytes. Software that crashed mid-save and wrote an incomplete table. A file that was edited by something that produced a technically invalid result. In all of those the page content is present and only the map to it is broken.

It does not work when the data is genuinely gone. A file that lost half its bytes has lost half its pages, and no reconstruction can recover what is not there. Encrypted files with a lost password are a different problem entirely and not one a repair addresses.

Recovery is often partial, which is worth expecting rather than being disappointed by. Getting eighteen pages of a twenty-page document back is a good outcome from a damaged file, and the tool reports how many pages it found so you can tell.

Before trying anything: if the file came from somewhere, download it again. A corrupted download is by far the most common cause, and a fresh copy is a better fix than any repair.

Check the recovered document page by page. A file that opens is not necessarily a file that is complete.

How to use it

1Download the file again first if it came from somewhere — a truncated download is the most common cause.
2Drop the damaged PDF in and let the tool rebuild its structure.
3Check the reported page count against what the document should have.
4Read through the result, since a file that opens is not necessarily a file that is intact.

Questions

What can actually be repaired?: Damage to the file's structure — a broken cross-reference table, a truncated ending, an invalid index. The page content is usually intact in those cases and only the map to it is broken.
What cannot?: Missing data. A file that lost half its bytes lost the pages in them, and nothing can reconstruct content that is not present. Encryption with a lost password is a separate problem that repair does not address.
Some pages came back and others did not.: That is the normal outcome for a damaged file, and usually the best available one. The recovered pages are the objects that were still readable. Check the page count against what the document should contain.
Is my file uploaded?: No. The repair runs in this browser tab, which is worth knowing given that a document valuable enough to attempt recovering is rarely one to hand to a stranger's server.