PDFs get corrupted by: interrupted downloads, bad disk sectors, malformed generators, half-finished email attachments. Repair fixes most of it.
What we can recover
- Broken cross-reference tables (most common)
- Truncated files
- Missing page objects
- Corrupted streams
- Invalid metadata
What we can't recover
- Files where the actual content streams are gone
- Password-protected files without the password
- Severely damaged multi-object files
Success rate
About 85% for typical corruptions. If we can't repair it, we tell you — no fake success.
Prevention
- Always download PDFs fully before opening
- Don't send PDFs through channels that modify them
- Keep original backups