Cannot open powerpoint presentation. cannot repair file

Question

I have a powerpoint presentation that I had opened today. I did a computer shutdown and powerup and I closed the file before I did the restart. When I powered up the computer, an update was done. After the restart, I have not been able to open my presentation. I have autosave to my onedrive on. Error msg says can't be opened or repaired. I tried to open all the previous versions and the same error message. Have not been able to recover the file. Any ideas??

Answer 1

Hello Dave Rowland,

Thanks for sharing your concern on Microsoft Q&A.

I am sorry that you have met issue with your PowerPoint, and your files seems like missed. In this case, I have few troubleshoots here that you can consider trying it:

1. Try PowerPoint’s Built-in Repair

• Use the Open and Repair Feature:
  1. Open PowerPoint, click on File > Open.
  2. Browse and select the problematic file.
  3. Instead of clicking Open, click the small arrow next to the Open button and select Open and Repair.
• Insert Slides into a New Presentation:
  1. Create a new PowerPoint presentation.
  2. Go to Insert > Slides from > Reuse Slides.
  3. Browse and select the corrupted file to insert slides into the new presentation.
• Use PowerPoint Online
  1. Go to https://www.office.com.
  2. Open the file from OneDrive in the browser.
  3. If it opens, save a copy as a new file.

2. Check OneDrive sync, and your local file:

• If AutoSave was active, check Version History in OneDrive:
• Right-click the file in OneDrive > Version History.
• Open older versions to see if any are intact

3. Another Option:

• Check the AutoRecover folder: (Windows:) C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\PowerPoint
• Use Recover Unsaved Presentations in PowerPoint: File > Open > Recover Unsaved Presentations.

Moreover, you can check these references, which is might be helpful for your case: Recover your PowerPoint files

Powerpoint unable to open or repair file.

Hoping above steps can work on your case. In case you need further help, please leave your comment under this post so we can discuss it together.

Thanks, and sincerely,

---

If the answer is helpful, please click "Accept Answer" and kindly upvote it. If you have extra questions about this answer, please click "Comment".  

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.