Repair a damaged PDF
“The file is damaged and could not be repaired”, blank pages, an incomplete download… Try to recover your PDF before giving up on it.
Drop the PDF that will not open or shows errors
or pick a file from your device
- Open the PDF that fails.
- Press Repair PDF.
- Download the repaired file; the result tells you how many pages were recovered.
Three repairs, one result
Most damaged PDFs have a broken cross-reference table: the index that tells readers where each object is. CLEKARA first rebuilds it by reading the objects one by one, without touching the content. If that is not enough, it rewrites the document with Ghostscript in two different modes, which tolerate truncated files and broken objects.
Every candidate is opened and each of its pages is actually drawn to check it, and you get the one that recovers the most pages. If none of them works but some pages can still be displayed, those pages are rescued as images.
Worth knowing
Content that is physically missing (a download cut in half) cannot be invented: only what is still in the file can be recovered.
Password-protected PDFs are not damaged: unlock them with Unlock PDF instead.
Frequently asked questions
How can I fix a PDF that won't open?
Open it here and press Repair PDF. Three methods are tried and you get the best result.
Will I lose quality?
Normally not: the structure is rebuilt without recompressing anything. Only the last-resort rescue turns pages into images, and the result says so.
Is the file uploaded?
No. The repair runs inside your browser.