How to repair a corrupted PDF
To repair a damaged PDF, open the Repair PDF tool and add your file — PDFER loads it as tolerantly as possible and rebuilds a fresh document from the pages it can salvage, all in your browser with nothing uploaded.
What repair can and can't do
Repair recovers pages that are still parseable and drops those that aren't — it's best-effort. A file that's too damaged to parse at all, or truncated mid-download, may not be recoverable.
Before you retry
If the PDF simply won't open elsewhere, try re-downloading the original first — many "corrupt" files are just incomplete downloads.
Tools mentioned in this guide
Frequently asked
- Can every corrupted PDF be fixed?
- No — repair is best-effort. It rebuilds the salvageable pages, but a file too damaged to parse can't be fully recovered.
- Is my file uploaded to repair it?
- No. The repair runs in your browser, so even a sensitive damaged file stays on your device.