corrupt file will not open in word 2016

Is the file stored on a USB drive?

There are a couple of causes for corruption.  One is a file stored on a USB drive has been truncated. Yup, the tail end of the file is completely lost.  The other is Word gets "confused" and writes XML codes in the wrong order.

Actually, there are a couple of wizards on the Answers forum who are familiar with the codes and common error situations. The dive into the code and fix it (for free).

Here are links to some tips on DIY fixing your file

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Note: some of the tips suggest installing 7-Zip. You don't need it in Win 10, the functionality is built in to Windows.  All you have to do is add the .ZIP file extension to the end of the file name (after .docx). Then you can use File Explorer to dig into the underlying "guts" of the file
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OFFICE FILES AND GETTING ERRORS LIKE “FILE IS CORRUPT AND CANNOT BE OPENED”, “UNABLE TO START CORRECTLY”, AND “EXPERIENCE AN ERROR TRYING TO OPEN THE FILE”
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/8-annoying-windows-10-issues-fix/ 
To overcome this:
•	press CTRL + X 
•	select Command Prompt (Admin). 
•	Input the following command, but replace the Office number with whatever version you’re using, and then hit ENTER on your keyboard:
icacls “%programfiles%\Microsoft Office 15” /grant *S-1-15-2-1:(OI)(CI)RX
You should now be able to open your Office files. 
If not, try repairing the installation. For this, do a system search for programs and features and select the relevant result. Find Office in the list, right-click it and then press Change. Select Online Repair and then click Repair.

QUICK LEARNING ABOUT “X” FILE STRUCTURES - XML – EDITING XML
PT1: BREAKING INTO YOUR OFFICE OPEN XML FORMAT DOCUMENTS (2007)
http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&Even tID=1032319980&CountryCode=US 

END TAG- MODIFY CORRUPT FILE SO THE ERROR MESSAGE PROVIDES A USABLE LINE NUMBER IN THE XML
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-word/unspecified-error-worddocumentxml-line2-column-0/21971fa0-df44-4ba6-ac42-7d4b5cd4174f?page=30&msgId=f35f2924-811e-4170-9da5-6846d36a47b4 
socrtwo replied 
The error message “Unspecified Error, word/document.xml, Line:2, Column: 0” is pretty useless. You can edit XML to add lines breaks at each XML tag. Then when you open the file it will provide you with hopefully a more usefull line number to start from (as long as it is not the end of the document).
Opening the word\document.xml file with Notepad++ and then opening the Replace function window, you can put each XML tag on its own line and get a line number for your error, instead of “line 2, column 0”. Apparently putting the tags each on their own line and then rezipping the document.xml file with its fellow XML subfiles, does no harm, but obviously helps a great deal pinpointing the problem. 
However one should note, there is a trick to putting each tag on its own line in NotePad++...you have to be sure to move the radio button in the Search Mode section of the Replace Window from “Normal” to “Extended” and use “\n” to indicate a new line to the program. See step number 5.
So here are the steps for recovering manually from Unspecified Error Line 2, Column 0. Credit for this algorithm should go to ???

FIX END TAG MISMATCH - USE SYNTEXT’S SERNAFREE EDITOR
How can I open a document with an end tag/start tag mismatch when the automatic fixit does not work?
http://answers.microsoft.com/thread/71231b04-6217-4c02-b663-7fce1300fa19  
Thank you for the thorough information. Though hard to read through, I did follow one of the links (http://runferalrun.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/the-name-in-the-end-tag-of-the-element-word-2010-error/) and following his instructions - including downloading a free XML editor - I was able to restore my document. The Serna XML editor he recommended found 3 tags that Word had opened but not closed. The editor put my cursor exactly where the tag was expected and his instructions were accurate in how I was to fix the error. 

http://www.brandwares.com/bestpractices/2015/02/xml-hacking-an-introduction/ 
Posted on February 20, 2015 - Updated on May 5, 2016 
With the introduction of Office 2007, Microsoft changed the basic file format that underlies Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Instead of the proprietary and mostly undocumented format that ruled from Office 97 to Office 2003, Microsoft made a smart decision and switched to XML. This is tagged text, similar in structure and concept to HTML code with which you may already be familiar.

XML HACKING: DOCUMENT REPAIR
http://www.brandwares.com/bestpractices/2016/02/xml-hacking-document-repair/ 
Posted on February 29, 2016 - Updated on May 5, 2016 
You have a crucial thesis or presentation that’s due in the morning, but when you try to open it, you get a message saying the file has an error. It may seem like the end of the road, but with a little XML hacking, you can repair your file in just a few minutes and be back to work. Document repair is something you can do yourself.

XML EDITORS
XML EDITING IN VISUAL STUDIO EXPRESS 2010 WITH 7-ZIP (BOTH FREE)
http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/learn/themes/xml-editing-visual-studio-express.html 
This article shows how to install 7-Zip and the Visual Basic part of Visual Studio Express 2010.

XML NOTEPAD 2000
https://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=7973
•	<snip>
•	Free MS XML editor
•	Thanks to your advice I managed to restore my document and it saved me a ton of headache. So I thought I should write some words about the method I used to fix xml errors in document.xml.
•	I opened the docx in 7-zip and unzipped document.xml. The problem was that document.xml had ~90k tags so this was far too much to read through manually to find the error. 
•	What I also saw is that Word store document.xml without Windows line endings, so the whole document was on one line(I saw this when I opened it in Notepad and Visual Studio).
•	I then opened document.xml with Microsoft Xml Notepad and saved it again. Xml Notepad is configured to normalize the line endings when saving the xml file. I zipped document.xml back into the docx-file and opened it in Word. This time, instead of getting Line:2,column:0, I got something like Line:75377,column:0. 
•	I then jumped to the erroneous line, deleted it and some other suspicious tags around it and zipped document.xml back into the docx. Opened the document in word again, got an error on a different line and repeated the procedure. After three attempts I had managed to clean my document of errors and it opened correctly in Word. 
•	Word 2007 will often show the location of the error when Word 2010 or 2013 will not but not everyone has access to multiple Office versions.
•	</snip>

FIRSTOBJECT XML EDITOR (FREE)
http://www.firstobject.com/dn_editor.htm
Firstobject’s free XML editor for Windows is called foxe. It loads big files (multi-megabyte) fast and lets you format XML and edit HTML and any loosely formed XML or other markup. The tree view is editable and customizable for useful navigation.
Other features include syntax coloring, word wrap, Go To Line, show XML path, Microsoft global IME, MSXML based DTD validation. 

END TAG - UNSPECIFIED ERROR LOCATION: PART: /WORD/DOCUMENT.XML, LINE: 2, COLUMN: 0
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817583 
There are 2 “end tag” type errors. They have different causes and different fixes. 
This one can be identified by the “Line: 2, Column: 0” in the error messge. This problem can be fixed by applying the hotfix in KB2817583.
The other one lists a LARGE column number “Line: 2, Column: 100001”. This type of error requires manual editing to place the missing End Tag into the file. Described below
One Person reported being able to fix this sort of problem simply by doing a File / Open and save in Libre Office.
2015 12 01- WORD CORRUPT DOCUMENT CHECKER
https://wordcorruptdocchecker.codeplex.com/ 
<snip> 
I created this tool to fix corrupt Word documents (non-binary, just open xml files). Mainly this applies to the .docx format. It basically just checks through a list of corrupt xml tags that I’ve come across and attempts to fix the tags. It will create a copy of the file you provide and attempt to fix the copy. The original file should be left unchanged.
</snip>

SOCRTWO REPLIED ON 11/5/2013 
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-word/unspecified-error-worddocumentxml-line2-column-0/21971fa0-df44-4ba6-ac42-7d4b5cd4174f?page=24&msgId=929bee5c-eacd-419d-8150-4adfbf93a471 
•	Hi All, 
•	I developed a new improved version of an earlier piece of my freeware, Corrupt DOCX Recovery, that may recover what is possible to recover with many or most corrupt Microsoft Word documents including those with “Unspecified” and  “The name in the end tag of the element must match the element type in the start tag” errors. The program fixed Lindel’s document right away maybe just by repairing the zip structure, which it always does as a first step, and then opening the file with Open and Repair option of Word. I’m going to study it.
•	I have been following this thread with interest and used the shared files in development. The program is open source. The second link is the Sourceforge Project page where the source can be downloaded.
•	All feedback is much appreciated :-). I do attach Adware offers normally to the install but not in the install link below...
•	http://hostedfiles.wherehaveibeen.info/savvy_corrupt_DOCX_setup_2.0.0_no_offers.exe
•	http://sourceforge.net/projects/quickwordrecovr/

TONY JOLAN’S AUTOMATIC FIX HTTP://WWW.WORDARTICLES.COM/TEMP/REBUILDER.DOTM
•	Download  http://www.wordarticles.com/temp/Rebuilder.dotm  Microsoft Office Word Macro-Enabled Template (.dotm) and open it.
•	Click Options button on the Security warning and select Enable this content. 
•	Click the Broken Documents tabat the far right of the ribbon.
    
•	Click the Rebild button in th let-hand sde 
    
•	Locat ad openyour cor uptdcument in the fileopen diaog.
Tat’ it. Theproces wll repai  your dcument i possibl and crete a newdocument with (Rebuilt) appended to the filename. Be patient as it may take a few minutes. If a repair is not possible, you can then post to a public file area and someone here can attempt a manual repair.

This discussion 
A BLOG ENTRY WITH FIX INSTRUCTIONS
http://runferalrun.wordpress.com/2012/08/31/the-name-in-the-end-tag-of-the-element-word-2010-error/ 
So, you are working on that important Final presentation for your college Marketing Course and after toiling for hours you find Microsoft Office’s Word will no longer open your file.  When you do, you get a error box that (after clicking on the “Details>>>” box) looks like this:
Posted August 31, 2012 by runferalrun in Uncategorized. Tagged: Office Word Error Open Document end tag element content problems. 16 Comments
LET ME FIX IT MYSELF
If you arefamiliar with editing XML, you ca try to fix the prolem yourself by corecting te sequene of themismatchd oMath  ags in the document. See the following example:
Incorrect tags:
<mc:AlternateContent>
<mc:Choice Requires=”wps”>
<m:oMath>
…
</mc:AlternateContent>
</m:oMath>
Correct tags:
<m:oMath>
<mc:AlternateContent>
<mc:Choice Requires=”wps”>
…
</mc:AlternateContent>
</m:oMath>
Note: You will have to use an application such as Notepad to edit the XML.
Manual Technique
<snip>  A DOCX document is actually a .ZIP file that contains many internal components. There is an internal folder called word which will always contain a document.xml file. This file is the basis of the document’s layout and content.
Assuming that the DOCX archive structure has not been corrupted, it can be opened in an archive utility. I use WinRAR for this. Once opened in WinRAR, you can drill down into the word folder and see the document.xml file. I use Notepad++ as a text editing tool and have the .xml file extension associated with this program so i can simply double-click document.xml in WinRAR to open an editing session.
Notepad++ has cursor positioning in the right-hand side of the status bar and finding the position of the error (supplied by a failed open in Word) is pretty straightforward. I look for empty formatting tags first and only remove content if removing empty tags does not allow the document to be opened. I try to note existing content in the area that I make modifications in order that I can supply position reference information to the owner of the DOCX.
When editing, I assume the philosophy that kess is more. My target is to get the document to open in Word with as little modification as possible and let the original owner of the DOCX make any necessary adjustments.
I should mention that after making a change to word/document.xml you need to save it in Notepad++ then go to WinRAR and acknowledge that you want to update the file in the DOCX archive. Once the archive is updated, you can attempt to open the DOCX in Word to see if your efforts are successful.
WinRAR		Notepad++		</snip>

DOCX DISASTER RECOVERY: HOW I RESCUED MY WIFE FROM XML-HELL
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/06/09/docx_disaster_recovery/ 
Something strange in your closing tag, who you gonna call?
By Trevor Pott, 9 Jun 2014
Sysadmin blog What do you do when a critical Word document won’t open? Even in today’s world of versioned documents, it is entirely possible for corruption to squeak in and go unnoticed, wrecking your entire version history.
But all is not lost. My wife had this happen to her; here’s how we solved it.

The following answers the question posed. If the steps described do not allow the file to be recovered, it may have become corrupt beyond repair

Open a document after a file corruption error

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Open-a...