How To Fix "Word Was Unable To Read This Document. It May Be Corrupt." Error?

If you tried to open a Word document stored on a pen drive or shared by your colleague via Gmail, you might have seen the following error: "Word was unable to read this document. It may be corrupt." This error occurs in Windows Vista and above. Since it is not specific about the cause of the problem, people usually try to repair the corrupt file on their system. But what if the problem actually lies elsewhere? Is there a way to fix this error without wasting your time? Yes, there is. In this article, let’s find out how we can do it.

Has MS Word ever failed to open your document at the last minute when you really needed it? Although it is not an uncommon occurrence, it can cause tension and anxiety. You need not worry since you can easily resolve the “Word was unable to read this document. It may be corrupt” error. However, you need to establish the cause of the error to enable you to resolve it. There are several reasons why MS Word sends this error. This article highlights the various reasons for this error and ways of how to resolve it. They include:

Virus infection on your word file

Virus infection on your computer can affect your various files, including word documents. Your computer can get infected when you connect it to the internet with no antivirus protection. It can also derive viruses from external connections such as flash disks and memory cards. Once the virus reaches your word file, it may corrupt it making it impossible for the application to open it.

How to solve the problem?

You will need to repair the word file to enable MS Word to recognize and open it through these steps:

1. Open any Word document and click on the “files” option.
2. Click on the “open” option.
3. Select the “Browse” option.
   
4. Select the corrupt file.
5. From the drop-down below, select “Open and Repair”.
   

This process will repair your file, enabling MS Word to open it.

Altered File Extension

MS Word application can also detect your Word document as corrupt when it has an unrecognized file extension. Your file has to have a file extension compatible with the MS Word application such as “docx”, “RTF” or “TXT”.

How to solve the problem?

You will need to change the file to an extension recognized by MS Word through the following steps:

1. Open the file location and select the file.
2. Click on the “Rename” option
3. At the end of the file name after the dot (.) type RTF, TXT, or any other compatible file extension.
4. Open the renamed file and save it in a new location.

You can then open the file from the new location with no problems.

Moved Word Documents

Once you move your word document from its original location, the MS Word application will still keep the file name. However, it will be unable to open it when you command it to. Moving a file from one system to another without following the right process can also corrupt it.

How to solve the problem?

For the MS Word application to open your file corrupted through improper moving, you need to recover it from its original location. The steps below will recover the text lost in the process of moving the document.

1. Find the file in the saved location and select it.
2. From the drop-down menu, select “Recover Text from Any File (*. *)”
   
3. Click Open.

If you moved the document and cannot find it, use the steps below to find its backup file:

• Launch MS Word then click on the “File” option.
• Click on the “Open” option.
• Click on “Browse”.
• Find the folder where you had saved your file.
• On the type list, select “All Files”.
• Find a file with your file name, preceded by “Backup of” or search “*wbk” to find all Backup files.
• Open the backup file.

Once you locate the file, open and save it in your desired location.

You must establish how your Word file gets corrupt to determine the effective repair method. Using the above steps will make your file usable on the MS Word application, saving you all the anguish.

Summary: Fix "Word was unable to read this document. It may be corrupt." error

• Open a document in Word.
• Press Ctrl+A to select all the text in the file.
• On the Home tab, in the Font section, click Clear Formatting.
• Save the file again.