"We can't open … because we found a problem with its contents" — what to do.
Word says "We can't open … because we found a problem with its contents" when a specific document package fails validation before the file can open. Upload the untouched .docx for a separate repair attempt and preview one or two complete watermarked pages from the rebuilt document before you decide.
Free preview — pay only if you download ($14)
Your files auto-delete — delete them sooner anytime
No person looks at your file as part of repair
Uploading your file.
Keep this tab open while the file transfers. Large files can take a few minutes.
Starting upload...
Recovering what we can.
Analyzing your file...
Here's what we recovered.
Review one or two complete watermarked pages from the rebuilt document before checkout.
Your files auto-delete — delete them sooner anytime
No person looks at your file as part of repair
Repair your file
Choose a supported file to see what can be repaired before checkout.
Simulated checkout — no payment is processed.
Optional — we'll email your private download link.
You preview before you pay. If the download is materially worse than the preview you approved, we'll refund you.
Try another fileGood news — your file isn't damaged. No charge.
There's nothing to repair. If it still looks broken, the issue may be the player, codec, or viewer on your device rather than the file itself.
We couldn't recover this one.
The file is too damaged to rebuild, so there is nothing to preview and no charge.
Have another clip from the same device?
A healthy video recorded on the same device — ideally the same settings — gives the repair engine a template to rebuild from. It can unlock repairs that fail on their own.
Unrepaired files are kept encrypted for up to 30 days, then deleted.
FileFix can't fix that kind of file yet.
Right now we repair video, audio, document, and image files (MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, AVI, TS, MTS, M2TS, MPG, MPEG, VOB, 3GP, WebM, FLV, M4A, WAV, MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, AIFF, XLSX, DOCX, PPTX, ODT, ZIP, PDF, AI, HEIC, and HEIF). We're adding support for more formats over time.
Something went wrong.
The request could not be completed.
Try repairing your file
FileFix can often repair this kind of damage if the file is recoverable.
Why this happens
This prompt identifies the named document and means Word found an invalid package member or relationship while opening it. The main document XML may contain an unfinished element, or the package records may point to a member that is missing or no longer matches its declared content type.
Because this failure happens while Word is assembling that file's package, the body XML can still contain readable paragraph nodes even though Word refuses the document. Rebuilding focuses on extracting the surviving body and placing it in a clean minimal .docx rather than asking Word to keep parsing the inconsistent wrapper.
FileFix recovers word/document.xml with a fault-tolerant parser, writes a separate document package, and validates it before producing the preview. The preview shows only content present in the rebuilt document; it does not guarantee that missing source content, formatting, comments, tracked changes, headers, images, or other package features were recovered.
What we can and can't recover
We can usually fix
- Documents that show "Word found unreadable content"
- Documents Word refuses to open
- Documents cut off mid-save or mid-transfer
- Files that show the right size but won't open
We can't fix
- Password-protected/encrypted documents
- Genuinely empty (0-byte) files
- Deleted or formatted files (that's data recovery, a different job)
- The old binary .doc format (this repair is for .docx)
- OpenDocument text (.odt) — see the dedicated ODT repair page
How it works
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Upload Drop the file in. It uploads over an encrypted connection. The repair runs automatically — no person looks at your file.
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Free Watermarked Preview Preview one or two complete watermarked pages from the rebuilt document before you decide.
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Pay & Download If the preview shows what you need, unlock the repaired Word document for a one-time $14.
You see complete watermarked pages from your rebuilt document before you decide anything — so you never guess.
See what's recoverable.
Free watermarked page preview · private & auto-deleted
Browse by problem
Questions
Word found an invalid package member, relationship, content-type record, or unfinished XML element while assembling that specific document.
Try it on a copy and check the result. Keep the untouched original because a saved repair may discard content Word could not parse.
It builds and validates a separate .docx, then provides one or two complete watermarked preview pages containing only content present in that rebuilt document.
A one-time $14 — and only if the repair works. Seeing what was recovered is free, and checkout is only offered when the engine produces a validated repaired file.