Docs

PDF Repair

Fix a PDF that won’t open, prints blank or says “file is damaged” — the structure is rebuilt on your device, nothing uploaded.

Drop a PDF to begin
Damaged PDF No file loaded
Drop the PDF here or click to browse
Any PDF, even ones that fail to open — up to 100 MB
Repaired PDF Awaiting file

The repaired first page appears here

Settings Auto · keep metadata
How It Works

How to Use PDF Repair in 3 Steps

1

Drop the broken PDF

It is accepted even if the viewer cannot open it. If it does open, the first page shows on the left.

2

Pick a method

Auto re-parses every object, rebuilds the cross-reference table and rewrites a clean file; if the content streams themselves are damaged it falls back to re-drawing each page as an image. You can force either.

3

Repair and check

Click Repair. The badge reports pages recovered, what was dropped and whether the result opens cleanly. Download it and try printing again.

FAQ

PDF Repair — Frequently Asked Questions

Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?

No. The document is read by PDF.js (the engine Firefox uses) and rewritten by pdf-lib entirely inside your browser. Nothing is transmitted or stored.

What kinds of damage can it fix?

The common ones: a broken or missing cross-reference table (the “xref” error), a truncated download, wrong object offsets, duplicate or dangling objects, a bad trailer, junk before the header or after %%EOF, and malformed annotations or forms. It rebuilds the index by scanning for objects, like Acrobat’s repair does.

What can it not fix?

Encrypted files (unlock them first), and files whose page content streams are themselves destroyed. For those the rasterise fallback re-draws whatever the renderer can still show — text becomes an image, so it is a last resort.

Will the text still be selectable?

Yes with Rebuild structure — pages are copied as vector content. Only the rasterise method turns pages into pictures, and the badge tells you when that happened.

Why is the repaired file a different size?

The file is rewritten with a fresh object table and compressed object streams; dead objects left behind by earlier edits are not copied, so it is often smaller. Dropping annotations also removes their data.

The tool says my PDF is encrypted — what now?

Password-protected PDFs must be opened with their password before they can be edited. Run them through Unlock PDF first, then come back.