PDF files are widely used for documents, manuals, reports, and forms. However, like any other digital file, PDF documents can get lost, deleted, or become corrupted. Fortunately, recovering lost or damaged PDF files is often possible—whether they were deleted accidentally, corrupted during transfer, or affected by software crashes. This article walks you through effective methods for recovering PDF files on Windows, Mac, and other platforms.

Part 1: Common Causes of PDF Loss and Corruption

You need to recover PDF file when it's lost or corrupted. The former is to bring a lost PDF file back, and the latter is to recover a PDF file to its normal state. You can check some common causes of PDF loss and corruption.

Why Your PDF Files Get Lost

1. Accidental Deletion: You or someone else deleted the file unintentionally. In this case, you may recover the PDF files in the Recycle Bin.

2. Formatting or Distribution: our storage device (USB, SD card, or hard drive) was formatted, or the file got corrupted. If your hard drive has been distributed, your PDF files will also be erased.

Why Your PDF Files Get Corrupted

1. System crash or software error: Programs like Adobe Acrobat crashed while opening or saving a PDF file. Maybe your Windows or macOS is suffering from an unknown error, which causes a running PDF file corrupted.

2. Interrupted transfer: A PDF may be damaged during file transfer between devices or over the internet.

3. Virus or malware attacks: They may remove or damage your PDF files.

Part 2: How to Recover Lost or Deleted PDF Files

Now, let's learn how to recover a PDF file when it's lost. You can learn 2 reliable ways. Also, the 2 methods can help when you cannot find your lost PDF files in the Recycle Bin on both Windows and Mac.

1. The Easiest Way to Recover PDF File

Do you want to know how to recover corrupted PDF files and lost ones? Apeaksoft Data Recovery is your ultimate all-in-one solution. First, it can recover PDF files when they are permanently deleted due to formatting, partitioning, removing from the Recycle Bin, and many other severe situations. Second, it can recover damaged PDF files by retrieving the previous versions of the PDF files.

It will offer the fastest and most reliable PDF file recovery service on your Windows and Mac computer with ultimate and absolute security! Feel free to use it to recover your PDF files right away!

Step 1. Download and install Apeaksoft Data Recovery on your computer and launch it. Select your desired file location. For example, if your lost PDF files were in Disk: E, then you can select Disk: E. Then, click the Start Scan button. The program will scan your computer and collect all lost files, including PDF files.

Step 2. During the scanning process, you can check your lost PDF files by selecting the document file type. Then, select your desired PDF files and click the Recover button to recover PDF document easily. You can also use this program to recover deleted videos.

2. Recover PDF Files with Built-in Backup Tools

If you regularly back up your data with File History (Windows) and Time Machine (Mac), you can use the two recovery approaches to recover PDF file easily. Both the methods won't factory reset your computer.

Windows File History: Right-click on the folder where the PDF was stored, select Restore previous versions and browse to an earlier version. Then, you will find some lost files and recover your PDF file easily.

Mac Time Machine: Open Time Machine, navigate to the location where the PDF was, and restore it from a previous backup.

Part 3: How to Recover Corrupted PDF Files

Your PDF readers, such as Adobe Acrobat, Office, and WPS, may automatically back up your PDF files. When you open a corrupted PDF file with one of them, it may prompt you to recover PDF file from its backup.

For example, if you have enabled auto-save in Adobe Acrobat, when you open a corrupted PDF file with Adobe Acrobat, it will prompt you to recover PDF file from a backup in its auto-save feature.

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