Word says it "found unreadable content" or the .docx is corrupt
Last reviewed 2026-09-19
A .docx file is really a ZIP archive of XML files. Word shows these errors when the ZIP structure or one of the XML parts inside it is damaged, most often after an interrupted save, a sync conflict or a bad download.
Messages you might see
- “Word found unreadable content in document.docx. Do you want to recover the contents of this document?”
- “We're sorry. We can't open document.docx because we found a problem with its contents.”
- “The file is corrupt and cannot be opened.”
Why it happens
- The computer or app crashed, or the battery died, while the file was being saved.
- A cloud-sync client (OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive) uploaded a half-written copy.
- The file was cut short while downloading or copying from a USB drive.
- A tool that edits documents wrote invalid XML into one of the parts.
Try this first (free, no tool needed)
- Keep the damaged file untouched and work on a copy.
- In Word choose File > Open > Browse, select the file, click the arrow beside the Open button and choose Open and Repair.
- In the same Open dialog, set the file type to "Recover Text from Any File (*.*)". It pulls out the plain text even when the structure is beyond repair.
- Look for an older copy: File > Info > Manage Document > Recover Unsaved Documents, the OneDrive or SharePoint version history, and the hidden "~$" or .tmp files in the same folder.
- Open it in LibreOffice Writer or Google Docs. Their readers are more forgiving and sometimes open a file Word refuses.
If that didn't work
These tools run in your browser. Your file is read and repaired on your own device and is never uploaded.
Corrupted Word Repair
Reads the file even when its ZIP directory is broken, repairs damaged XML parts, rebuilds the content-type and relationship files and removes references to parts that are gone. It never edits your text. If the text itself was destroyed it cannot bring it back.
Open Corrupted Word RepairCommon questions
Will my formatting and images survive?
Anything that is still intact in the file is kept exactly as it was. Parts that were physically damaged, such as a corrupted image, may be lost, and the report tells you what was dropped.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The tool runs as a program inside your own browser, so the file is read and repaired on your device and never sent to a server.