Few things cause more panic than an error message saying 'File is damaged and could not be repaired' when trying to open a critical tax return or signed agreement. Files can become corrupted during interrupted downloads, bad email gateway encoding, or disk errors. Most damaged PDFs can be rescued with stream normalization.
#1Why Do PDF Files Get Corrupted?
A PDF relies on a cross-reference table (the `xref` table) located at the very end of the file. This table acts as a map pointing to the exact byte offset of every page, font, and image.
If a download terminates prematurely or an email client truncates trailing bytes, standard PDF viewers fail to locate the map and declare the entire file unreadable—even though 99% of your document data remains intact!
#2How MistPDF Rescues Broken Files
Our repair engine performs a sequential byte scan from the beginning of the file, identifying valid page dictionaries, font streams, and text objects. It reconstructs a brand-new, clean xref table and serializes a fully normalized output PDF.
Even if the last few pages were corrupted, all preceding intact pages are salvaged successfully.
Conclusion
Don't despair over corrupted files. Rescue your damaged documents with MistPDF's automated repair engine.
Preguntas Frecuentes
Can MistPDF repair a file that won't open in Adobe Acrobat?
Yes. Adobe Acrobat has strict parsing requirements and halts on minor xref errors. MistPDF uses fault-tolerant parsing to reconstruct broken structures.
Are there any fees or file limits for repairing PDFs?
Zero. MistPDF's repair tool is 100% free with unlimited usage.