Word found unreadable content in “..”. Do you want to recover the contents of this document.

Question

In the last couple of weeks, I have had a number of clients contact me due to the error message Word found unreadable content in “..”. Do you want to recover the contents of this document. occurring when a document is created from a template with a range of document controls. There is no XML tags, no field names / tags. One particular template has been working for 18+ months with no issues.

I'm not sure why this has started to happen. The sites are on MS SharePoint (using MS SharePoint Office Library's) or Google Workspace. They are all using M365 (although one is on a MAC)

If they click Yes, the documents open and they have to resave.

I've read the other posts and not able to solve.

The only thing that has worked, is recreating the template and using the same controls.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Hi all - so our team works with a lot of template files and we've started running into this more often over the last 8 months. We use a combination of content controls in our generated documents and also editing restrictions.

For us, what we've found is that this can occur with the Plain Text Content Control - where essentially there's a specific set of circumstances that we haven't yet been able to reproduce where a content control seems to go inside a content control. It's invisible until clicking into the content control to edit.

In design view (developer tools tab), you can see that there's a second content control:

In regular view once you click into the content control and right-click on that area in the first screenshot with the additional content control and right-click and choose 'Remove Content Control' - that fixes the issue for us and the document is able to be saved, opened again, etc.

There could be other circumstances where this occurs, but hopefully this may help a few people that are running into the same issue as we did.

Answer 2

Dear @LIG_AB

The error message typically indicates that Word has detected corrupted content or a compatibility issue within the document. To help me identify the root cause, could you please answer the following questions:

• What troubleshooting steps have you tried before?
• Does the error occur for all users, or only specific users?
• If you create a brand-new template with the same content and controls, does the issue still occur?
• If you download the template locally and create a document outside of SharePoint/Google Workspace, does the problem persist?

According to my research, here are some troubleshooting steps I recommend you try:

Step 1: Repair the Word Document

• In Word, go to File > Open from the left sidebar. Then, click the Browse option. > select the file, click the dropdown next to Open, and choose Open and Repair. For more information, please refer to Open a document after a file corruption error

Step 2: Remove the Read-Only Attribute

• Right-click on the problematic Word file and select Properties > Under the General tab, clear the Read-only checkbox. Then, hit Apply, followed by OK.

Step 3: Restore an Earlier Version of the Word Document

If the Word document you are trying to access was saved to OneDrive, you can attempt to restore an earlier version of the document. This should help revert any changes that may have damaged the document.

• Press Windows + S to open the search menu, type OneDrive, and select Open > Locate the Word file you are trying to open > Right-click on it and select Show more options
• Select Version history from the list > Hover your mouse over an earlier version of the document on the list. Click the three-dot icon and select Restore.
• Note: You can also download the previous version of the file and see if Word can open it.

Step 4: Disable Protected View in Word

Open Microsoft Word and select Options from the left pane > Trust Center tab and click the Trust Center Settings button > Clear all three checkboxes to disable Protected View and click OK to save changes.

For references, you can refer to 5 Ways to Fix “Word Found Unreadable Content” Error and How to Fix Unreadable Content in Word: A Step-by-Step Guide

Disclaimer: *These link is shared by community members for your convenience. It points to a third-party site that is not managed or verified by Microsoft. We can’t guarantee the quality, safety, or suitability of any content or software found there. Please review carefully and make sure you understand any potential risks before using it.*I hope the information shared is helpful. Please follow these steps and let me know if it works for you.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. I'm looking forward to your update.

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