How to Repair a Corrupted Image File

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Image files in Windows operating systems can be of different formats. The widely used ones are JPG, JPEG, BMP, TIF and GIF. Image files can corrupt due to system or user errors. You know your image is corrupt when you are unable to view the image or your image-editing software is producing error messages. You may even see a distorted version of the picture. You can perform a few steps to troubleshoot a corrupt image file.

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Rename the Image File

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Step 1

Browse to locate the image file in your hard disk.

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Step 2

Right-click the file, and select "Rename."

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Step 3

Type a different name with the same file extension, and press "Enter."

Step 4

Re-open the file in your image-editing software.

Use a Different Image Editor

Step 1

Find a different image editor that may be installed on your computer. Launch the program.

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Step 2

Click on "Open," and select "Browse" to navigate to the location where the image file is saved.

Step 3

Single-click the file, and select "Open." Go to the next section if you are still unable to open the image file.

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Use an Image-recovery Program

Step 1

Choose an image-recovery program. "Davory," "PixRecovery" or "JPEG Recovery Pro Editor" can help you fix the corrupt image file. See Resources to download the setup file for the program.

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Step 2

Follow the on-screen guided prompts to complete installation. Launch the program once the installation is complete.

Step 3

Click "Open" or "Browse," and navigate to the location where the image file is saved.

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Step 4

Single-click the file, and hit "Open."

Step 5

Select "Recover" or "Fix" (based on the program). Follow the on-screen prompts to complete fixing the corrupt image file.

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