Fix corrupt MS Word file

[bandy472]

I've got a MS Word .doc (not .docx) file that is corrupted and won't open on my MacbookPro. I've tried Preview and Pages, tried saving as Plain Text but to no avail. I've downloaded Libre Office and tried opening it from that but, again, it won't. I have some recovery software but it only recovers the files, not fixes them.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can fix the corrupt file without buying any new software?

BTW I don't have any MS for Mac software.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Libre Office, OpenOffice should open up a valid DOC file without any issues. If it's corrupted, they might not be able to fix it and only MS Word might have a chance of doing so. So if you know someone who has MS word (or you have it elsewhere), use that first to see what happens.

 

[bandy472]

Libre Office, OpenOffice should open up a valid DOC file without any issues. If it's corrupted, they might not be able to fix it and only MS Word might have a chance of doing so. So if you know someone who has MS word (or you have it elsewhere), use that first to see what happens.

Thanks. Will explore this.

 

[ferrarr]

Where did you get the file from?

Also, you can use Word online,

Free Microsoft 365 Online | Word, Excel, PowerPoint

With Microsoft 365 for the web you can edit and share Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files on your devices using a web browser.

www.microsoft.com

 

[bandy472]

Where did you get the file from?

Also, you can use Word online,

Free Microsoft 365 Online | Word, Excel, PowerPoint

With Microsoft 365 for the web you can edit and share Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote files on your devices using a web browser.

www.microsoft.com

It's an old file that I decided to work on again. Thanks for the info. Have tried this and still can't open it so I think it's lost for good. **-hum.

 

[chscag]

If you could not open that file with a text editor, then it's likely corrupt beyond repair.

I have Word files saved that go back to the 90s that I can still open with my current version of Word, MS Office 395 for the Mac.

 

[NSMacGuru]

FIRST: always work on a COPY so you have something to go back to if one fix doesn't work.

SECOND: Rather than do this from memory, I pulled a post from the net, so credit to the fellow named below:


Rusty Platter

Oct 5, 2015 at 9:03 AM


Throwing one more suggestion in:
.docx Word documents are .zip folders.
Rename and change the document to .zip, then open the folder if you can. Inside you'll find various files that make up the .docx ; with some luck you can recover some or most of it.

Source: Spiceworks