Fix a Corrupted PowerPoint PPTX File
A corrupt file can bring your well-prepared presentation to a screeching halt. There are several ways you can try getting a corrupted file to load, including moving it to a new location, extracting the slides from inside of it, and loading PowerPoint in Safe Mode. If you’re able to recover some or all of the corrupted presentation, you can use the recovered slides to make it again.
Contents
Steps
Moving the Presentation to Another Location
- Open the folder containing the corrupt presentation file. Use your file explorer to navigate to the folder containing the presentation file you’re trying to open.
- Connect a USB drive or other storage device. The basic idea behind this method is to move the file from a possibly corrupt drive onto a working one. If the presentation is already on a USB drive, you’ll be copying it to your computer’s hard drive. If the presentation file is on your computer’s hard drive, you’ll be copying it to a USB drive.
- Open a folder on the second storage device. This can be any location on the second storage device, as you just need to move it from one drive to the other.
- Click and drag the file from the original location to the second drive. This will copy the file from one drive to the other.
- If the file doesn’t allow you to copy it, the file or the drive itself may be corrupt.
- Open the copied file from the new location. After copying the file, try to run it from its new location on the second drive. If the original location was corrupt, you may be able to open it properly now.
- Check the original location for errors. If the file opens fine from the new location, you’ll want to try to fix any disk errors in the original location.
- Windows - Open your Computer/This PC window and right-click on the disk that was giving you problems. Select “Properties,” click the “Tools” tab, and then click “Check now” in the “Error-checking” section. Check both boxes and click “Start.”
- Mac - Open the Disk Utility program from the Utilities folder. Select the problematic disk from the left menu, then click “First Aid.” Wait for the scan to complete.
Inserting Slides into a New Presentation
- Open PowerPoint. One of the quickest ways to troubleshoot a corrupted presentation is to try to import them into a blank presentation. You may be able to save some or all of the slides. Start by opening PowerPoint without loading a file.
- Start a new blank presentation. When prompted to select the type of file you want to create or load, select the blank presentation option.
- Click the "New Slide ▼" button in the Home tab. You'll find this towards the left end of the Home tab. Make sure to click the ▼ part of the button so that the menu appears.
- Select "Reuse Slides" from the bottom of the menu. This will open a sidebar on the right side of the screen.
- Click "Browse ▼" and then "Browse File." This will open the file browser.
- Select your corrupted PowerPoint presentation file. Use the file browser to navigate to the file and select it. Click "Open" to open the file.
- If PowerPoint is able to extract the slides from the corrupted file, you'll see them appear in a preview window.
- Right-click one of the slides in the preview and select "Reuse All." This will import all of the slides from the corrupted file into your blank presentation.
- Check your imported slides. If the slides were able to import properly, you'll be able to run the presentation and see all of the slides. PowerPoint may not have been able to recover all of the slides from the corrupted file.
- Import the slide master from the corrupted presentation if the imported slides don't look right. If the slides don't look like they should after you've added them to your blank presentation, you may be able to fix it by loading the corrupted presentation as a theme template:
- Click the File menu or Office button and select "Save As." Save a copy of your recovered presentation with a different name as a backup.
- Open the Design tab, click "More" in the "Themes" section, and then click the "Browse For Themes" link.
- Select your damaged presentation file and click "OK." This will load the slide master from your damaged presentation, which will restore the theme.
- Switch back to your backup copy of the recovered presentation if it stops
- Save your recovered presentation. After confirming that the slides have imported properly, you can save your new presentation file. You should be able to load the new without any corruption problems.
- To be extra safe, save it to a different location than the original corrupted file was stored.
Using the PowerPoint Viewer (Windows)
- Download the PowerPoint Viewer installer. This is a free program from Microsoft that will display PowerPoint files. You may be able to use it to view the corrupted presentation. PowerPoint Viewer is not available for Mac computers.
- You can download PowerPoint Viewer from {{{1}}}. Select your language and click "Download."
- Double-click the downloaded file to begin the installer. This will begin the installation process for the PowerPoint Viewer program.
- Follow the prompts to install the program. You can leave the installation settings at their default and proceed through the installer to install the Viewer.
- Start the PowerPoint Viewer program after installing it. You'll find this in your Start menu.
- Browse for the corrupt presentation file and open it. If the file is able to open in the PowerPoint Viewer program, then your copy of PowerPoint may be damaged and not the file. If this is the case, you may need to reinstall PowerPoint.
- See Install PowerPoint for details.
Opening PowerPoint in Safe Mode (Windows)
- Open the Start menu or screen. You can try loading PowerPoint in Safe Mode, which disables some features but may get your presentation working.
- Type .powerpnt /safe ‘’’and press’’’ ↵ Enter’’’.’’’ This will launch PowerPoint with a new blank presentation.
- Confirm that you’re in Safe Mode. Look at the top of the PowerPoint window. You should see “(Safe Mode)” at the end of the title.
- Try opening your corrupted file. Click the File menu or tab and select “Open.” Browse for your corrupted file and see if you can open it now that you’re in Safe Mode.
- If the presentation opens in Safe Mode but not normally, you may need to reinstall PowerPoint. See Install PowerPoint for details.
Using an Online Service
- Visit an online PowerPoint recovery site. There are several online services available that can attempt to fix your corrupt PowerPoint file. Avoid using these for presentations with sensitive material, as you’re essentially handing the file over to strangers. Some popular sites include:
- online.officerecovery.com/powerpoint/
- onlinefilerepair.com/repair
- Upload your presentation file. Click the “Choose File” button and browse for your corrupted presentation file. Once you’ve found it, upload it to the online repair service.
- Wait for the recovery process to finish. The time this will take will depend on the service’s current queue, but should only take a few minutes at most.
- Open the email with your recovered data. After the recovery process is complete, you’ll receive an email with a link to view your recovered slides. Depending on the service, you may get this link directly through the website instead.
- Review the slides you were able to recover. The recovery service may not have been able to completely restore the presentation, but you’ll receive every slide that it could possibly extract.
Tips
- If all of your presentation files are getting corrupted, there is likely something wrong with the storage device. Try the disk checking methods outlined in the first section, and avoid saving new files there in the future.
