Fix Corrupted PowerPoint PPTX File

If you’ve encountered a corrupted PowerPoint PPTX file, don’t worry! There are several methods you can try to recover your presentation and get back to work.

Method 1: Using Open and Repair (Windows)

1. Open PowerPoint on your computer. Launch PowerPoint by clicking it in the Windows Start menu or in your Mac’s Applications folder. Avoid double-clicking the PowerPoint file to open it.
2. Click the File menu and select Open. If you don’t see a File menu, you can simply click the Open icon on the welcome screen.
3. Click Browse. This action opens your computer’s file browser.
4. Browse for the PowerPoint file and click it once to select it. Ensure you only select the file without clicking Open yet.
5. Click the down-arrow next to the “Open” button. This is located at the bottom of the window, revealing additional options for opening the PowerPoint.
6. Click Open and Repair. This command will open PowerPoint in protected view and attempt to display the presentation.
   • If the presentation opens successfully, you can click the Presentation icon at the top to start the slideshow.
   • To make changes to the presentation, click Enable Editing at the top.

Method 2: Inserting Slides into a New Presentation (Windows and macOS)

1. Open PowerPoint. Importing the slides into a blank presentation can sometimes help recover your data.
2. Click Blank Presentation. This will create a new presentation for you.
3. Click the “New Slide ▼” button on the Home tab. This button is located towards the left end of the Home tab.
4. Click Reuse Slides on the menu. This opens the Reuse Slides sidebar on the right side of the screen.
5. Click the Browse button. This action opens your computer’s file browser.
6. Select the corrupted PowerPoint presentation and click Open. If PowerPoint can extract the slides, they will appear in a preview window.
7. Right-click one of the slides in the preview and select Insert All Slides. This action imports all slides from the corrupted file into your new presentation.
8. Check your imported slides. Make sure the slides were imported correctly and can be viewed in your new presentation.
9. Import the slide master if the imported slides don’t look right. If the slides appear incorrectly, load the corrupted presentation as a theme template.
   • Click File and select Save As to back up your work.
   • Click the Design tab and select More to browse for themes.
   • Select your damaged presentation file to load its slide master.
10. Save your recovered presentation. After ensuring your slides are intact, save your new presentation file in a different location for safety.

Method 3: Adding a New Trust Location (Windows)

1. Press ⊞ Win+E. This opens File Explorer, which you will use to navigate to the broken PowerPoint file.
2. Open the folder containing the broken PowerPoint file. Navigate to the problematic file’s location.
3. Create a new folder inside the current folder. Right-click a blank area, select New, and then click Folder. Name this new folder “Test.”
4. Copy the PowerPoint file into the new folder. Right-click the PowerPoint file, select Copy, return to the Test folder, and select Paste.
5. Open a blank PowerPoint presentation. Start PowerPoint and click on Blank Presentation.
6. Click the File menu and select Options. This option is located at the bottom of the File menu.
7. Click Trust Center. This option is found at the bottom of the left panel.
8. Click Trust Center Settings. This option is on the right panel.
9. Click the Trusted Locations tab. This tab appears on the left panel, displaying a list of folder paths.
10. Click Add new location. This option is in the bottom-right area of the window.
11. Select the Test folder you created. Click the Browse button, navigate to the Test folder, click OK, and then click OK again to save your changes.
12. Open the presentation at its new location. Click the File menu, select Open, locate the file in the Test folder, and click Open.

Method 4: Moving the Presentation to a Different Drive (Windows and macOS)

1. Open the folder containing the corrupt presentation file. Use either File Explorer or Finder to locate your PowerPoint file.
2. Connect a USB drive or external hard drive. Move the PowerPoint file from a suspected corrupt drive to a working one.
3. Open a folder on the second drive. Choose any location on the USB or external drive.
4. Click and drag the file from the original location to the second drive. This action copies the file to a different location.
5. Double-click the PowerPoint file at its new location. This step allows you to check if the file opens correctly now.
6. Check the original location for errors. If the file opens from the new location, address any disk errors in the original location.

Method 5: Opening PowerPoint in Safe Mode (Windows)

1. Press ⊞ Win+S to open the Windows Search bar. This allows you to run PowerPoint in Safe Mode, which disables certain features.
2. Type powerpnt /safe and press ↵ Enter. This command opens PowerPoint in Safe Mode.
3. Try opening your corrupted file. Use the Open option to navigate and open your PowerPoint file.
   • If the presentation opens in Safe Mode but not normally, you may need to consider reinstalling PowerPoint.