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Document opens blank (or with garbled characters) after a crash or forced shutdown

Word (.docx) · what this error means and every free fix to try first

Document opens blank (or with garbled characters) after a crash or forced shutdown

What's actually wrong

An interrupted save can leave a truncated file: the container is present but ends mid-stream. Word sometimes opens these as blank rather than erroring. The portion written before the interruption is usually recoverable.

Free fixes — try these first

  1. Check AutoRecover: reopen Word — the Document Recovery pane may hold an autosaved copy. Also look in %AppData%\Microsoft\Word for .asd files.
  2. File → Info → Manage Document → Recover Unsaved Documents.
  3. Look for ~WRL temp files in the document's folder — rename to .docx and try them.

If the free fixes fail

If no autosave exists, the truncated file itself usually still holds most of your text — we recover everything up to the cut.

Check what's recoverable — free, in your browser.

Drop the file on our analyzer. It runs locally (the file never leaves your computer) and shows you an honest recovery percentage with a real preview. If nothing is recoverable, we say so plainly — and you pay nothing, ever, for the diagnosis.

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