Guide to Fix Microsoft Project File Gets Corrupted

Why won’t my Microsoft Project open?

As the name reveals, Microsoft Project is a part of the Microsoft Office family. However, this software product has never been included in any of the Office suites. And the Microsoft Project’s proprietary file format is .mpp.

Microsoft Project is a project management software program that aims to help a project manager to create schedules, assign resources to tasks, manage the budget, and analyze workloads. 

Possible reasons behind corrupted MPP files

Several possible causes are responsible for corrupted MPP files. Please get an overview of them below. 

How to fix the Microsoft Project file gets corrupted?

Your MS Project files will likely be corrupted if your MS Project file won’t open. At the moment, some of you are eager to raise questions:

Like MS Office, Microsoft also released practical built-in features to protect users’ files. In a summary, if you can recover corrupted Excel files with the Open and Repair feature, it’s also possible for you to repair damaged MS Project files.

Fix 1	Insert as a subproject file in a blank file to open the MS project files
Fix 2	Save the corrupted MS project files into XML format and convert them to MPP files

Fix 1. Insert as a subproject file in a blank file to open the MS project files

How to fix the Microsoft Project file gets corrupted? Please refer to the following steps.

Step 1. Please open a new MS Project file and select its first row.

Step 2. Click Project > Subproject.

Step 3. After opening a file dialog, locate the corrupted MPP file you want to insert into the blank MS Project file.

Step 4. Under the File Name tab, uncheck the “Link to Project” button.

Step 5. Click the Insert drop menu and select the “Read-only” option.

Step 6. Expand the schedule to check whether all the tasks have been imported.

After that, you can delete the extra first row and rename this edited file.

Fix 2. Save the corrupted MS project files into XML format and convert them to MPP files

If your Microsoft Project file gets corrupted, saving the damaged file to the XML format is another option. Let’s show how it works.

Step 1. Open a blank MS Project file and disable automatic calculation.

Step 2. Select your corrupted file. After that, click File > Save as.

Step 3. Select “XML format” to “Save” this file.

Step 4. Close your Microsoft Project and reopen it. Then go to File > Open.

Step 5. Open the Projects dropdown menu in the lower-left corner of the dialog box. Then select XML format > Open.

Then you can save this file as a Project (.MPP) file.

Bonus tips: How to recover deleted MS Office files with ease?

Microsoft Office files are essential to our careers and lives. Generally speaking, deleted files include accidentally & recently deleted files and permanently deleted files.

After accidental/first deletion, you can recover files recently deleted from Recycle Bin.

However, after emptying the Recycle Bin, you’ll have no choice but to restore files from backups or utilize professional data recovery software for permanently deleted files.

Recover deleted MS Office files in Windows 10/11 using document recovery software

Although backups are the best hedge against data loss, they’re also the most overlooked data loss prevention measure.

Supposed that there’s no accessible backup for the restoration process, there’s no better way than using document recovery like MyRecover to recover deleted MS Office files.

Please avoid overwritten performances on your Windows computer because any newly added files could overwrite your permanently deleted MS Office files.   

Let’s take MS Excel as an example. Please download MyRecover on your Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, or Windows Server computers to get your deleted Excel files back!

Step 1. Launch MyRecover on your PC. Hover the mouse over the drive saved deleted Excel files before, and click Scan.

Step 2. Search your desired Excel files or wait to see all the deleted and other missing files after performing Quick Scan and Deep Scan.

At this step, you can use the Search box or filter feature to locate your deleted Microsoft files quickly.

Step 3. Go to the Deleted Files/Other Missing Files folder, and choose your desired Excel files. Please click “Recover x files” and save them in a new location.

Data loss prevention tips 

The above content has elaborated on how to easily fix the issue of your Microsoft Project file gets corrupted and recover deleted MS Office files.

Moreover, you’re advised to put the following data loss prevention tips into action.

• Both for MS Project & MS Office files, don’t interrupt/cancel when you’re copying the file.
• Limit the use of master/sub-project structure.
• Limit using a shared resource pool between several MS Project files.
• Please think twice before deletion.

• Open your MS Office files, then click File > Options > Advanced > Save > Always create a backup copy > OK.
• Activate the AutoSave and AutoRecover features.
• Embrace this free backup software for Windows to make regular file, partition, disk, or system backups.

• For corrupted MS Office files like damaged MS Word, try to recover text from any file Word 2019 or use the Open and Repair feature. 

Final words

If you meet the Microsoft Project file gets corrupted issue, read this article and you can get 2 useful solutions. In addition, a powerful file recovery software is also introduced to you. If your Microsoft files are deleted or lost by accident, you can try to use MyRecover to help you get them back.