How To Fix Corrupt Files On Powerpoint For Mac

PowerPoint can't open my presentation. I get messages about it being corrupt or unreadable. Solution or Workaround First, be sure you've updated your copy of PowerPoint to the most recent version. That can solve many problems, including the inability to open some PPT files. See this MS support article for Mac-specific suggestions. Corrupted powerpoint presentations are files that suddenly become unusable and can't be opened with Microsoft PowerPoint. There are several reasons why a powerpoint file may have been damaged. In some cases, it is possible to fix and recover the corrupt ppt (PowerPoint 2003, 2002, 2000, 97), pptx( PowerPoint 2007, 2010), pps file.

Microsoft Office suite is not limited to Word for typing and Excel for calculations. You just can’t miss a very important and useful tool of this package, which is PowerPoint. If you’re a part of an organization or running your own business, PowerPoint helps you create a presentation for multiple purposes. Here in this post, we’ll find advantages of MS PowerPoint tools and how we can use them. Also, we’ll see how corruption takes place in PowerPoint presentation and how to repair PowerPoint file.

Microsoft PowerPoint – Best Presentation Tool

Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program developed and provided by Microsoft for both Windows as well as Mac systems. It creates electronic presentations consisting of a series of separate pages or slides. In a PowerPoint presentation, you can include formatted text, bullet points, images, movies, sound effects, and music.

Advantages of PowerPoint

Here’s the list of advantages of PowerPoint tool:

  • Increase the visual impact
  • Increase spontaneity and interactivity
  • Engage multiple learning styles
  • Improve audience focus
  • Provide annotations and highlights
  • Analyze and synthesize complexities
  • Enriching curriculum with interdisciplinarity

PowerPoint File Corruption Reasons

The fact says no computer file is immune to corruption, be it PowerPoint presentation or any other file. There are various reasons which make a PowerPoint presentation prone to corruption. Whenever corruption takes place in PowerPoint presentations, you just can’t open them anyhow. The most common reasons for corrupt PowerPoint file are virus infection, abruptly system shutdown, forcefully cancellation of PowerPoint program, hard disk failure, software malfunction, and human errors.

Error messages on screen when PowerPoint file gets corrupt

  • “PowerPoint found an error that it can’t correct. You should save presentations, quit, and then restart PowerPoint.”
  • “There was an error accessing the file.”
  • “The file is corrupt and cannot be opened.”
  • “PowerPoint was unable to display some of the text, images, or objects on the slides in the file FileName.ppt.”
  • “PowerPoint cannot open the type of file represented by FileName.ppt.”

Repair PowerPoint File Manually

To repair PowerPoint file manually, you have multiple solutions. And the good thing is that you don’t need to use any 3rd party tool.

Use “Open and Repair” trick to repair PowerPoint file

Whenever you face corruption in PowerPoint files, you should use “Open and Repair”. It comes as a built-in repair feature in Microsoft PowerPoint program. Just follow the steps given below to know how to repair PowerPoint file using “Open and Repair” feature:

Step 1: Launch Microsoft PowerPoint program on your system. But don’t open the corrupt PowerPoint file.

Step 2: Click File tab on the taskbar. Click Open in the options. Or you can simply press Ctrl+ O.

Step 3: Browse the location where the corrupt PowerPoint file is stored. Click the file once to select it. Double-clicking the file will open it. So avoid it.

Step 4: Now click the drop-down arrow shown on the Open button below.

Step 5: In the options, you’ll see “Open and Repair”. Just click it.

In the case of minor corruption, it’ll fix it and open the corrupt PowerPoint file with ease.

Try to open corrupt PowerPoint file differently

If you can’t open the corrupt PowerPoint file using “Open and Repair” feature of Microsoft PowerPoint program, then open it differently. It means you should try a different way to open corrupt PowerPoint file. Or, you can use a different program to open it.

Insert slides from corrupt PowerPoint file into a new one

If the PowerPoint file is corrupt, you can try to insert slides from it into a new one. That’s so simple, you just need to follow these steps:

Step 1: Launch Microsoft PowerPoint program on your system. But make sure don’t open the corrupt PowerPoint file.

Step 2: On the Home tab, click New Slide icon. Or you can simply press Ctrl + M.

Step 3: Click Reuse Slides… in the options.

Step 4: On the right-hand side, you can see Reuse Slides pane. There browse the path of that corrupt PowerPoint file from which you want to import the slides.

Step 5: Now you can see a list of all the slides. Right-click the first slide and click Insert All Slides in the options.

Note: Before inserting the slides, don’t forget to check the Keep source formatting box at the bottom of the Reuse Slides pane.

Step 6: Now save this presentation file.

Also Read: Repair Word File Manually

PowerPoint Recovery Tool – Professionally Recommended

If no manual trick works for you or you can’t use them due to any reason, you must look forward to a professional solution. There are many software vendors in the market which provide recovery tools for corrupt PowerPoint file. One such tool is PPTX Recovery provided by SysInfoTools Software. It’s an amazing solution for PowerPoint users who are actually looking for some great help. It can repair PowerPoint file saved with PPTX extension. Via this software, you can successfully restore slides (including master slides), text, images, formatting, animations, drawn objects, and other media from corrupt PPTX file.

Whatever you recover from the PPTX file, you can save them into a new file so that no alteration is made to the original PowerPoint file. PPTX Recovery tool is available with the demo version for free evaluation. I strongly recommend you to download free demo version of PowerPoint Recovery Software. By using demo version, you can see what you can actually recover from the corrupt PPTX file before you can actually pay for the software. If you’re satisfied with the result, then only you should purchase the software.

PowerPoint recovery online - onlinefile.repair

Important note: MS PowerPoint users who are using older versions like 2002 or earlier, should try PPT Recovery software. It supports corrupt PowerPoint file saved with PPT extension. For a free evaluation, download the demo version of PPT Recovery software that’ll help you see what you can actually recover from the corrupt PowerPoint file.

In this article, we are going to highlight how to access corrupted PowerPoint presentation files on your computer. If you are desperately trying to open a corrupted ppt file on your computer but you can’t, then go through these easy fixes. You will be able to open it following any of these methods-

Fix-1 Open PowerPoint in Safe mode-

Open PowerPoint in Safe mode and then try to open the presentation.



1. Press Windows key+R to launch Run window.

2. In the Run window, copy-paste this command and hit Enter to open PowerPoint.

PowerPoint will be launched in Safe Mode.

3. In the PowerPoint window, click on “File” in the menu-bar.

4. Now, click on “Open” from the left-hand side panel, and then click on “Browse“.

5. Now, navigate to the location of the PowerPoint file, select the file, and then click on “Open” to open the file.

Check the presentation is opening or not. If you still can’t go for the next fix.

Fix-2 Try to launch the file directly from Run-

Try to open the PowerPoint presentation directly from the Run window.

1. Press Windows key+R to launch Run window.

2. Now, open the file location where the presentation file is located.

3. Drag the presentation file to Run window and then click on “OK” to open the file on your computer.

The presentation file will be opened in the PowerPoint window.

Fix-3 Open and Repair the file within PowerPoint-

To easily open and repair a corrupted PowerPoint file follow these steps-

1. Open the PowerPoint on your computer.

2. In the PowerPoint window, click on “File” in the menu-bar.

3. Now, click on “Open” from the left-hand side panel, and then click on “Browse” to locate the file on your computer.

4. Now, navigate to the location of the PowerPoint file, select the file.

5. Now, click on the drop-down beside ‘Open‘ and click on “Open and Repair” to open and repair the corrupted file on your computer.

You will be able to open the presentation file without any further problems.

Fix-4 Use Reuse slides to create a new presentation-

Try to create a new presentation from the existing slides of the corrupted presentation.

1. Click on the Search box and then type “PowerPoint“.

2. Now, click on “PowerPoint” to open it on your computer.

3. Click on “Blank Presentation” to create a new blank presentation.

4. Click on the down arrow key beside “New slides” and then click on “Reuse slides“.

5. In Reuse Slides panel (elevated in the right-hand side) click on “Open a PowerPoint file“.

6. Navigate to the location of the PowerPoint file, select the file, and then click on “Open” to open the file on your computer.

All the slides of the corrupted presentation will be listed on the right-hand side.

8. Now, click on all the slides one-by-one on the right-hand side to include them to the blank presentation.

9. After including all the slides, click on “File” on the menu-bar.

10. Now, click on “Save as” to save the file on your computer.

Now save the file to a location of your choice. Close PowerPoint window.

Now, you can easily access the new presentation you have just created.

Fix-5 Change Trusted Center settings-

Adding the folder location to the list of trusted location center may work out for you.

1. Go to the location where the problematic file is. Now, right-click on the space and then click on “New>” and then click on “Folder“.

2. Now, copy the problematic presentation and then paste it in this new folder.

5 Ways To Fix A Corrupted PowerPoint PPTX File - WikiHow

Close File Explorer window.

3. Now, open the PowerPoint window on your computer.

4. In the PowerPoint window, click on “File” on the menu-bar and then scroll down and click on “Options“.

5. In the Options window, on the left-hand side, click on “Trust Center” to modify Trust Center settings.

6. Now, in the Trusted Center window, click on “Trusted Locations” on the left-hand side.

7. Now, on the right-hand side, click on “Add new location…” to include the location of the presentation as a trusted location.

8. In Microsoft Office Trusted Location window, click on “Browse” to add the location.

9. Now, navigate to the folder location (where the presentation file is) and click on it to select the folder.

10. Finally, click on “OK” to save the changes on your computer.

11. Coming back to the Microsoft Office Trusted Location window, you will notice the location you have just selected.

Click on “OK“.

12. In the Trust Center, you will also see your selected trusted location.

13. Finally, click on “OK” to save the changes on your computer.

14. In the PowerPoint Options window, click on “OK“.

Close PowerPoint window.

Again try to open the presentation on your computer. It should open without any further issues.

Sambit is a Mechanical Engineer By qualification who loves to write about Windows 10 and solutions to weirdest possible problems.

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