How do I reopen a word document with "unreadable content"?

The most common causes of document corruption are editing the files while it is on an unsupported cloud service (Google Drive, iCloud, etc.), and editing them while they are on a USB/Flash drive.

Here's my page on repairing Word documents by editing the XML: OOXML Hacking: Document Repair

Hi,

Where did you save the file?

What kind of file format is the document?

NOTE: Please back up the document first.

I suggest right click the problem Word file- select Properties- General tab- check the Unblock option- click OK.

If this method is not helpful, you can try to open the document in safe mode:

Running the following command: Press Win + R, type "winword /safe" in the blank box, press Enter- then open the document in safe mode. If it works fine in safe mode, please check the add-ins in your Word and disable them.

You can also try to the Open and Repair option, open a blank Word document- go to File- Open- Browse the problem document- click the small triangle arrow icon in the Open button- Open and Repair:

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The message means one of two things: either the file is in a format which Word can't open, or the file is damaged.

If you are sure that the document is in Word format, treat it as corrupt. You may be able to retrieve the text content if you try opening the document in WordPad (the Windows accessory). It might also be possible to retrieve text from the underlying XML structure.