Damaged PDF files (corrupt)

Hey guys,

A few people email me and say they cant open my pdf file because they get an error saying is damaged and cannot be repaired.

Anybody know how to fix this? I did search google but only see software I have to purchase. Surely there is something I can do. I have recreated the pdf document many times with no fix.

cheers,

Swerd

 

I have found a smaller file is less likely to get corrupted.

Sometimes the user has ancient version of Adobe Reader, and that causes the problem.

Sometimes it's your PDF creation software that needs to be updated.

I always delete the suspect file on the server entirely. Then upload recreated PDF. Corrupted files have a funny way of sticking around.

Also could the corrupted PDF be getting cached somewhere along the line... like in the user's browser?

 

There are options in Adobe Acrobat Standard to make the file compatible with older versions of adobe, it is possible they are trying to open your adobe 6 pdf on their old adobe 4 acrobat or something like that. Maybe try making your file compatible with Adobe 4 or 5. What creation software are you using?

 

Thanks!

I am using Primo PDF. I have told them to update their adobe reader but they say its the latest one already.
I have also tried pdf995 - same problems.

I have also recreated the file and saved it as another file name.. Still no fix. Customers get this problem from all of my products and its the most common email i get "cannot download file - damaged/corrupt"

I also tell customers to download the file and open it rather then opening it in a browser window as I have read sometimes this can cause the error.

Thanks for the help guys - I appreciate it

 

It could be a case of HTML tag corruption.

You can check if your PDF document has been corrupted by viewing it in WordPad or any other text editor.

The mark %%EOF designating the end of the PDF document should be at the very bottom of the file, and should not be followed by the HTML tags that migrated to the PDF document from the script that produced it which you can see here-



If you do not have anything listed after the %%EOF, then that is strange.

 

I don't understand. They cannot download it? Or they cannot open it?

I use PrimoPDF too, and it works fine.

 

If in fact it is an error on the part of their reader, maybe you could bundle foxit reader or some other viewer with the download. No idea if it's against their TOS or not, you'd have to investigate.

I do like foxit for viewing .pdfs though, it loads fast and has a small footprint unlike that bloated P.O.S. acrobat.

 

Sometimes, due to an error while downloading, the file gets corrupt. Tell your customers to clear their Cache and try downloading again. Downloading from a mirror link after clearing Cache solves this in most cases.

 

I'm sure it's not the case...but just in case/it's my cynical nature...these people have purchased your product, correct? You have a way of verifying this? I know sometimes people will email the publisher saying they couldn't get whatever to work sneakily only pretending like they bought it, just hoping to get the publisher to send them a free copy directly.

 

then you ask for their sale's receipt, and if they claim they lost it, ask for username/password. if they can answer neither two, then they're screwed.