'The file cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents' Fixes

"When I try to open a Docx file, Microsoft Word 2013 doesn't allow me to access the file and flashes an error message saying 'The file [.docx] cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents.' Clicking on the details, it displays an 'unspecified error'. Is there a way to recover the word document or its contents?" 

'The file cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents' Fixes

'The file cannot be opened because there are problems with the contents' error message which pops up and prevents users to access their office documents like .docx or .xml files. When you get the error message, you can infer that your file might be corrupted. Then how can you open, repair or recover the Word document? In this page, we have created three solutions including a third-party Word file recovery software to help!

Fix1. Use Open and Repair Feature to Open the Word Document 

Step 1. Start Word.
Step 2. On the File menu or the Microsoft Office button, click Open.
Step 3. In the Open dialog box, click to select the blank Word file.
Step 4. Click the down arrow on the Open button, and then click Open and Repair.

This Microsoft Word built-in feature will then fix the problems or corruptions that detected on the documents.

Fix2. Use Google Doc to Open the Word Document 

Step 1. Send the corrupted Word file to your Gmail account. 
Step 2. Click the attachment to open it in the Google Docs previewer.
Step 3. Click 'Open With Google Docs'. The document should open and be viewable.
Step 4. Click File -> Download As -> Microsoft Word (.docx)
Step 5. Use Microsoft Word to open the document you just downloaded.

Fix3. Use Word Recovery Software to Retrieve the .docx Document 

Except for the two methods above, there is also some third-party Word file recovery software that can help! Here EaseUS disk data recovery, a try-before-buy tool can help.

Follow a simple way to recover lost Word documents:

• Choose the Word file location
• Scan all lost data
• Select Word files and recover

Step 1. Choose the Word file location

It's the first step. You must clearly know where your Word files got lost, choose a hard disk drive or a specific folder. If it's on a USB flash drive or SD card, take one more step to connect it to your computer.

Right-click on the drive X: and click the Scan button.

Step 2. Scan all lost data

The software will start immediately scanning all lost data on the selected drive, and you'll see more and more data showing up in the scan results.

Step 3. Select Word files and recover

After the scan, use the quickest way to the wanted Word documents by choosing "Documents" from the drop-down list in "Filter". You're allowed to preview a Word file if you have Microsoft Word application installed on your computer. Finally, select the desired documents and click "Recover".