How to Resolve “unable to open .docx file” Error?

How to Resolve

In the fast-forward world, changes in technology are always done to offer best and suitable options for people comfort. Earlier, people don’t have that much of options to make their Word files more creative and multimedia-filled. After lots of upgrades, MS Word offers maximum features  to make their word files more attractive and interesting i.e. MS Word has totally changed the world of users.

Thanks to both programmers former Charles Simonyi and Richard Brodie, who developed Microsoft Word as a “Multi-tool” Word in 1983 and made our lives so easy. After creation of Microsoft Word, both professional as well as novice users got an amazing platform to perform their task and are used till now.

More About MS Word

Microsoft Word offers a wide range of features like addition of color, text, font, image, tables, alignments,  files, borders, formatting styles, clip art, calendars, and much more. The various file extensions of MS Word are: .doc, .docx, .dot, .dotx, .rtf,  .txt, .htm, PDF, .dcom, .dotm, .xml, .dic, .thmx, etc. Nowadays, mostly document files are saved in .docx extension in by default location. But, user can change the location of file by selection its own particular location.

What is a DOCx file?

DOCX is the xml (extensible markup language) format contains advanced features that allow developers to manipulate Word 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016 files, in a simple and interactive manner. .docx saved files are fast, lightweight, compress bundles of files into a single zip file, portable,  bandwidth, and does not need Microsoft Word or Office to be installed.

Benefits of using .docx extension MS Word files

  • It saves space in hard drives
  • Portable in nature and contains time-saving options
  • .docx files are based on XML format
  • It utilizes Zip feature that binds multiple files into a single folder
  • It helps to enhance file, data management, and data recovery easily.
  • .docx files can be easily converted into doc, .html, .rtf and other file extensions.
  • .docx is the latest by default extension of MS Word that runs on 2007,10, 13 and 16.

Common errors that come in .docx files

  • “No data to recover detected”
  • “Internal product error.”
  • “there was an error opening the file.”
  • “unable to open .docx file”
  • The file [.docx] cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents.”

Methods to Repair “unable to open .docx file” Error

For MS Word 2013:

  • Go to Word document.
  • Click on File-> select Options-> then choose Trust Center-> press Trust Center Settings-> and tap on Protected View
  • In Protected View group disable or uncheck all three options-> then click Ok two times
  • Now, Close and open any .docx Word document and check it.

For MS Word 2007:

  • Open Word 2007 -> press Office Button-> Click Open.
  • In  File Name-> click Browse to-> choose any file.
  • Click the right side of arrow of  Open button-> select Open and Repair .
  • If the file is repairable, it will get repaired and then open it.

NOTE: Saving the repaired files before completion of the process may result in data loss issue.

Other Optional Tricks to Repair Corrupt Docx Files

  1. Try to “Unzip the MS Word File”
  • Convert the Word 2007 file extension from .docx to .zip.
  • Unzip the Word file.
  • Now, Open Word folder inside the unzipped folder-> select document.xml -> open it with Notepad.
  1. Convert your .docx file into .doc format for easy access and then open it.

If all the methods mention above give you unsuccessful results, then you may try the third-party program like: DOCX Recovery Tool. You can download its free version, that easily repair corrupt .docx files and allows you to open it in your system with Preview option. Hence, we believe that above mentioned solution will assist you to get rid of “unable to open .docx file” error message.