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Many people want to know more about how to Fix ‘Word Found Unreadable Content’ issue. Users often complain that MS Word found an error that made the content unreadable. This can happen in different versions of MS Word that are installed on Microsoft Windows Operating systems. Let’s figure out how to fix this mistake. The main reason you get a “Word Found Unreadable Content” error is that the file has become corrupted, and the level of corruption will vary from file to file. Because of this, different people have found different ways to fix their broken files when they get this error message. “The file can’t be opened because there are problems with the contents” or “Word couldn’t read this document.
It may be corrupt.” The error is happening because the file is broken, so Word can’t read it or show it correctly on your computer. This could have happened because the file was moved between devices more than once. It could also be because the file was saved in the.doc format instead of the.docx format, which lets users of older versions of Office open it. Well, many Word users have a big problem with files that are broken. It can stop you from getting important work or projects done on time. When this happens, the user needs to Fix ‘Word Found Unreadable Content’ issue to get to the information in the Word file.
Turn Off the Read Only Attribute
- Another possible cause for the unreadable content error is that the document attributes might be set to Read-only.
- To fix it, right-click the document and open the Properties menu.
- There, select the General tab and uncheck the Read-only option.
- To save the changes, click the Apply and OK buttons.
Turn Off Protected View
The Protected View feature is meant to stop you from opening files that could hurt you. But sometimes the feature is a little too careful, and it might stop you from opening safe files and show you a “unreadable content” error. You can temporarily turn off the Protected View Feature if you can’t open one of your own files or if it came from a reliable source. If you want to know more information about this Visit Official Microsoft Support site.
- Put Microsoft Word to work.
- Click on File, then Options.
- Choose Trust Center > Settings > Trust Center.
- Open Protected View from the menu on the left.
- Don’t check any of the three boxes.
- Select OK.
Repair Microsoft 365
If more than just Word from Microsoft 365 isn’t working right, it could be a sign of a bigger problem. Microsoft 365 may have missed important updates or its files may have become damaged. Follow the steps below to fix it on a PC running Windows:
- To open the Settings menu, press the Windows key + I.
- Choose Apps from the list on the left, and then go to Installed apps.
- Click on the icon with three dots next to Microsoft 365 and choose “Modify.”
- In the window that pops up, click Repair.
Use the Recovery Feature
When you’re having trouble with a Word document, you should use the “Recover Text from Any File” feature. So, even if the file got damaged, you can still get the document’s content back.
- Start Microsoft Word up.
- Click File, then Open Browse.
- Choose the file that you can’t open.
- Open the menu for browsing.
- Click on Recover Text from Any File.
Repair the Document
How to fix ‘Unreadable Content in Microsoft Word’ issue: In reality, the error message doesn’t give you much information about how to fix the problem. Even if you click “Yes,” Word may not load the content of the document. But Word can help you solve the problem. If you have a problem with one of your documents, you should have Word fix it for you. Here’s how it works:
- Start a new Word document that is blank.
- Click on File, then Open.
- From Anywhere else, click Browse.
- Find the problem Word file and choose it.
- Choose Open and Repair from the Open drop-down menu.
- Wait until Word is done and then check to see if the problem is fixed.
Why Does the Word Found Unreadable Content Error Happen?
Some people say they get the following error message when they try to open a Word file: “Word found unreadable content in XXXX. Do you want to get back the information in this file? “Click yes if you trust the source of this document.” When they click yes, it tells them that “Word ran into a problem when it tried to open the file.”
Why does this mistake happen? The “Word found unreadable content” error usually means that a file is damaged, which can be caused by things like virus attacks, file conversions, sudden power outages, and so on. “Word found unreadable content in…” is usually a sign that the Word file is broken or that malware has infected it. But there are a few other things that could make your Word document inaccessible and show the error message. Among these reasons are:
- Macro viruses have tried to get into your system. For people who don’t know, macro viruses are small pieces of malware that attack Word files and change their content, making the files unreadable.
- If MS Word crashes for no reason, you’re very likely to get the “Word found unreadable content” error.
- Your hard drive can sometimes have bad spots. These bad sectors can mess up the data on the drive, making documents impossible to read.