Corrupted Image Viewer: 5 Best Tools We Tested in 2023
3. File Repair 2.1 (Free)
Apart from being the only free tool here, File Repair claims to be able to repair many types of corrupted files, including Office documents, archives, video files, PDF documents, music files, and of course images including JPG files. Make sure to watch out for the adware offered during install.
Image 1: Failed to restore
Image 2: Failed to restore
Image 3: Failed to restore
Image 4: No change to original
Image 5: No change to original
4. PixRecovery 3 ($49)
PixRecovery is by the same people (OfficeRecovery.com) as the File Repair utility above and can handle JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG or RAW images. Fixed images can also be output to different formats.
Image 1: Image restored
Image 2: Failed to restore
Image 3: Failed to restore
Image 4: No change to original
Image 5: No change to original
PixRecovery has an online service which can attempt repair of your photo and you pay a one time fee of $9.99 for an instant result. There’s also a time delayed option where you can wait around 2 weeks and get the same repaired image for free.
5. JPEG Recovery Professional ($49.95) Basic ($39.95)
JPEG Recovery is available in 2 versions; the basic version offers the standard repair and save interface, the Pro version also includes an editor which applies auto fixes and allows corrupted parts of the image to be removed and multiple undo/redo. Thumbnails can be extracted using the tick box in the window.
Image 1: Image restored
Image 2: Failed to restore
Image 3: Failed to restore
Image 4: Partially repaired
Image 5: Partially repaired
Corrupted Image Results Summary
Here is a summary table of the results from each software and how it performed when attempting to repair the test image.
Image 1: First 8 bytes zeroed
Image 2: First 32 bytes zeroed
Image 3: First 1KB zeroed
Image 4: 32 bytes zeroed in the middle of the image
Image 5: 1KB zeroed in the middle of the image.
We found it a bit disappointing to see the only free tool here couldn’t recover anything whatsoever, even the 8 bytes missing image 1. It’s also a surprise that none of the tools could repair or recover a JPEG with the first 32 bytes or 1KB missing at the head of the file. Quite frustrating to see programs costing up to 100 dollars don’t do anything out of the ordinary. After a bit of testing, we found that the shareware tools can successfully repair an image fully ONLY if the first 20 bytes or less are corrupt. Zero 21 bytes and the image becomes unrecoverable.
JPEG Recovery is worth a special mention because it’s the only application that attempted to repair the files with parts of the image missing in the middle. The result wasn’t perfect but at least it improved the pictures, the other tools did nothing at all.
This screenshot above is the result of a repair by JPEG recovery of Image 5 which has 1KB missing in the middle, the 2nd picture in this article is the fully corrupted image.
Although all damaged images will be different and repairs will vary in their success, this test does at least give an idea what sort or corruption you’re likely to recover from and what might be lost forever or need professional repair. As a final note, NEVER pay for photo repair software unless you’ve seen the results you can expect to get from it. Some software is non refundable even if it fails to fix your images.
For small damages there is a free tool, JPEG Repair Shop – aNdErS, that is totally manual. It can be used to manually remove damaged/insert missing blocks and “repair” the color after the damaged blocks. For two photos I had with small damages it worked. It is manual so you have to lose 10-20 min/file to fix it.
Very unfortunate. I’ve also faced a similar situation. It hurts.
Interesting to see that only one picture of 5 was recovered. I have the same issue for years. Some pictures recovered from an old hard drive that was formatted. Pictures are all corrupted. I tried many more softwares but it did not work.
It doesn’t matter what piece of software may claim to recover your images. If the data is not there to recover, it appears they simply won’t be able to do much about it.
At that point, you’re looking at more comprehensive and professional methods, not just off the shelf software.
Where did you find Filerepair for free? It is just a trial version I have found so far. I think they are just another “gold prospectors”.
It would be interesting to see how the original set of files stand up to the latest versions of the programs you tested. They have gone through some versions in the ensuing years and a few more players with wild claims have entered the fray like “asoftech” who use the word “data carving”.
We may update the article in the near future if there are significant changes in the software or some interesting new additions. Anyone can test out a piece of software though because they only have to repeat what we did to our images, and it says in the article, all you need is a hex editor. The original image is also available if anyone wants to test with that for comparison. i.imgur.com/xqZKsOt.jpg
Asoftech is really bad (tested). Data carving however is a common phrase in data recovery ‘talk’, it is not something they have come up with..
Thanks so much for the useful helpful review! Sadly I lost 2655 files of my wildlife photography work from Malaysian Borneo, a place which is so far from home
thanks
Wow, this is awesome and so true too. I’m seeing allot of repair utilities these days, and they’re all completely useless. Unfortunately that doesn’t help anybody who really needs a repair badly enough. I had a client come in last year with that very problem and used several different tools, and well no result. I had to tell him that I couldn’t recover the files and watched him leave in misery.
See my above post, they can probably help you.
how to repair corrupted image
Thanks a ton for the honest and detailed article. You even went through the trouble of charting the results.
Saved me a lot of time in making a decision on which to try first.
I don’t usually leave remarks, but this article was really informative, and so straight forward and easy to read, I thought it worth a “2 thumbs up”! Well done and Thanks. It’s a pity that I only found it after I had installed and tried all of these programs and found them to be useless at fixing anything to do with corrupt jpegs! At least JPEGSnoop gives you a chance of seeing what me be wrong with the file.
It’s a shame no-one can be bothered to develop a proper program.. it must be possible, and would them be worth paying for!
Thanks a lot for this valuable review.
Thanks for the honest review. I was coming across problems that no site seemed to address until I read this.
Thanks for the review, Raymond. Not what I wanted to hear, but you saved me the time of trying them all out.
Any additional insights? How is progress with the software tool you are developing?
Hello!
thank you for the review! question though
Currently challenged with some photos that are corrupted from my phone. First error message was that it couldn’t open as it was truncated, or the jpg was too length was too short. I downloaded a program that enabled me to open them, but unfortunately the images are now a solid pink color (pink of all things!)
Any advice if these images are retrievable? Some vacation pics of Hong Kong so i would really like to fix them
hi had the same problem- transferred to a windows pc and managed to recover 90%
Raymond,
Thanks for the great information. I encountered a massive corruption of my jpeg files about six months ago, or so I thought. I use Ghost to backup my files. Since I had not viewed some older files, they became “toast”.
Whether or not I can recover these files does not diminish the respect I have for your free analysis of these tools.
Yours,
Bill
This was an extremely informative review. thank you!
I read two (2) programs ??? is any more….???
Look on page 2…
Thanks for sharing such good information. I have learned much by reading. Any advise on the following?
My jpeg displays all photos 100% clearly. However when I attempt to burn photos onto a CD or DVD or flash drive, the entire process is completed without apparent disruption, when i attempt to print from CD ,etc.. or view on another laptop or TV it will not show pics, even taking the CD etc to the photo processing lab at Costco the pictures are not found on CD, etc.
Hi, it might be problem with your recorderor just recording method. make sure that you’re not burning it in USB mode (making it able to add files later) – XP and older OS, as well as TV, can’t read unfinished CD/DVD.
Hi Raymond
Where can I download these test images, I have developed a tool to correct JPEG images, I can sent you examples of the files I have been correcting. I would like to see how my app stands up to these you have tested.
Thanks,
James
You can see towards the top of the article what was done to each image, you can easily do the same using a hex editor like HxD. Here’s the original:
i.imgur.com/xqZKsOt.jpg
Hi James:
Was reading your message about a tool you devloped to correct JEPG images. My flash drive was just recently hacked by the crypto/ransom virus and it has corrupted a good portion of my photos and I don’t know how to get them back. Coul you advise me, and do you have your tool for sale yet? Thank you, Lori
I have this problem too :((
If it corrupted them for purpose, then it is not recoverable and you should restore backup.
If it just deleted them simply, then i would use Recuva software.
Awesome trick
Thanks for this extremely useful!
Thanks for the tip. They are resources that at any time are required.