Guides
How files break, what repair can honestly do about it, and the habits that keep it from happening, written by the people building the repair engine. No hype, limitations included.
18 field guides · Updated July 2026
- 01
Repairing files in the browser: how IntactFile works
How IntactFile rebuilds broken MP4/MOV, ZIP, PDF, JPEG and more entirely client-side with WebAssembly — a clean-room moov reconstruction, honest outcomes, and no upload. - 02
Codec vs container: the distinction behind most unplayable videos
The container is the box; the codec is the language inside. Which one broke decides whether you install a codec or repair the file. - 03
Fixing a corrupted PowerPoint (.pptx) without PowerPoint
A .pptx is a ZIP of XML parts, so slides, text, and images usually recover even when PowerPoint won't open the deck. - 04
MOV vs MP4: why your iPhone video won't play on a PC
MOV and MP4 are near-identical containers. The real blocker is usually HEVC or a broken index — and only one is a repair job. - 05
Recovering a corrupt SQLite database in your browser
What "database disk image is malformed" means at the b-tree level, and how a raw page walk salvages every decodable row into a clean file. - 06
RAR vs 7z when the archive is damaged
RAR's recovery record repairs in-place damage; 7z has none and dies on tail truncation. What salvage can do either way. - 07
OBS crashed mid-recording: recovering the MP4
Why the forums say it's toast, why they're only half right, and how to record so it can't happen again. - 08
Recovering GoPro and drone footage after power loss
Why a dead battery strips the index but not the footage, the free in-camera fix to try first, and the reference-clip rebuild. - 09
Is it safe to upload your files to an online repair tool?
What “upload” really means, which files not to send, how to verify a tool's behavior in DevTools, and the in-browser alternative that sends nothing. - 10
"The file is damaged and could not be repaired" — fixing a broken PDF
Why Acrobat's message points at a broken xref index, not lost pages, and how rebuilding it reopens the document. - 11
PNG won't open: chunks, CRCs, and what's recoverable
Per-chunk checksums make some PNG damage a clean deterministic fix and some rows permanently gone. Which is which. - 12
Recovering a corrupted Excel file: what actually survives
An .xlsx is a ZIP of XML, so values, formulas, and sheets usually recover even when Excel won't open the file. - 13
Recovered files won't open? Why data recovery is only half the job
Recovery finds bytes; repair makes them a working file. Triage and format-by-format odds. - 14
Why half your JPEG is gray
How a JPEG is built, the three failure classes, and an honest read on what comes back whole and what's gone. - 15
How to avoid corrupting files on SD cards
A working photographer's checklist: the seven habits that prevent most card corruption, printable. - 16
"Unexpected end of archive" — what it means and what still comes out
Why a cut-off ZIP or RAR download loses its index but not the files inside, and how much still extracts. - 17
MP4 anatomy: what the moov atom is and why your video won't play
Inside the file format: boxes, the mdat data block, the index written last, and how it gets rebuilt. - 18
How video files get corrupted — and what's actually repairable
The five real causes of video corruption, and an honest map of which ones a repair tool can fix.