Repair a damaged PDF
Rebuild the structure of a PDF that won’t open and recover as many pages as the file still contains.
Formats & limits
Formats & limits
- Accepted formats
- Result
| On a computer | On a phone or tablet | |
|---|---|---|
| Max file size | 500 MB | 150 MB |
Limits on your device depend on its memory. Larger files may still work; the tool warns you first.
How it works
- 01 Choose or drop the PDF that won’t open.
- 02 Press Repair PDF; enter the password if the file is protected.
- 03 Check the number of recovered pages in the result.
- 04 Download the repaired PDF and open it in your usual viewer.
About this tool
“The file is damaged and could not be repaired” usually means the internal index of the PDF is broken: a download stopped early, an e-mail program mangled the attachment, or an application crashed while saving. The pages themselves are often still there.
Hushdesk scans the file object by object, reconstructs the cross-reference table and the trailer, and writes a clean PDF. If that rebuild loses pages, a second, more lenient reader tries again, and the version with more pages wins. You see how many pages were recovered before downloading, and the file never leaves your device.
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Two repair strategies
A strict rebuild keeps bookmarks and forms; a lenient fallback steps in when the strict one cannot recover every page.
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Honest report
The result says whether damage was found, how many pages came back and whether something may be missing.
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Private by design
Damaged contracts or scans are fixed on your computer or phone, in a frame that cannot reach the network.
Questions and answers
Why does my PDF say it is damaged?
Most often the file was cut short by an interrupted download or copy, or the index at its end was overwritten. Viewers rely on that index to find pages, so a small defect can stop the whole file from opening.
Can every broken PDF be fixed?
No. If part of the file is missing, the pages stored in that part are gone and cannot be recreated. The tool recovers what remains and tells you how many pages that is. Files that are not PDFs at all cannot be repaired.
Will the repair change how my document looks?
Recovered pages are written as they were stored, without re-rendering. If fonts or images sat in the damaged part, some text or pictures may be missing, so check the result.
Does the repair remove the password?
No. A protected PDF needs its password to be repaired, and the repaired file keeps the same protection.
What if the file was not damaged at all?
Then the result says that no damage was found, and you get a cleanly rewritten copy with the same pages.