How to Repair a Corrupt Visio File

Techwalla may earn compensation through affiliate links in this story. Learn more about our affiliate and product review process here.
Image Credit: Pixland/Pixland/Getty Images

Microsoft Visio file corruption can be repaired using a variety of methods. You can disable the all macros and disable the add-ons. These macros and add-ons could be the culprit causing the problems. You can also reformat the file as an XML drawing and as a VSD drawing. Sometimes when you change the formatting, it repairs the corruption. Or you can create a new file entirely by copying and pasting. Doing this can replace the missing pieces of the overall file and repair the problem.

Advertisement

Step 1

Open Visio by selecting the listing in the Start menu. Allow it to completely load on your screen.

Video of the Day

Step 2

Select "Trust Center" in the Tools menu. Select "Disable All Macros without notification" found in the "Macros Setting" tab. Now select "Add-ons." Deselect the check box found next to "Disable all Application Add-ons." Select "OK." Close Visio and then reopen the program.

Advertisement

Step 3

Reopen your Visio file. Did this solve the problem? If not, continue to Step 4 to change the file format.

Step 4

Select "Save As" in the File menu. From the drop-down menu under "Save As File Type," select "XML Drawing." Rename your file and select a saving location from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Exit the file but not Visio. Reopen your file. Select "Save As" again in the File menu; this time save the file as a "Drawing." Rename the file just as you did before and close out this file. Then reopen the file. Did this solve the problem? If not, continue to Step 5 to place this document into a new file.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Step 5

Select "Copy Drawing" found in the Edit menu. Select "New" in the File menu to open a blank file. Select "Paste" in the Edit menu. Select "Save As" and enter a new name for this file. Select "Save" when finished. The file corruption should be repaired. If you continue to have problems with these files, it is possible that you have hard disk errors. Steps to repair hard disk errors can be found on the Microsoft Support website (see Resources).

Video of the Day

Advertisement

Advertisement

references & resources

Report an Issue

screenshot of the current page

Screenshot loading...