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Repair MPP Files – Recover Corrupted Microsoft Project File

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Published By Nilesh
Aswin Vijayan
Approved By Aswin Vijayan
Published On July 3rd, 2019
Reading Time 5 Minutes Reading

How to Repair MPP Files

MPP (Microsoft Project’s Proprietary) file format used by Microsoft Project management software. Such MPP files save information for managing different types of project work assignments, schedules, control workload, track the progress and finances. It stores materials like Gantt chart, task usage, resource sheet, resource usage, etc. There are some users that are unaware of reasons for the corruption and do not know how to repair MPP files. For example, a user asking:

“I am working on Microsoft Project Management software. I am having several procedures as well as user forms etc. Now, I am unable to find the reason for the inaccessibility of data. I am unable to open my sheets. I think the file is somehow got completely corrupt for some reason. how to repair Microsoft Project file? Please help!”

Reasons for Corrupted MPP files

A Microsoft project stores the information in Excel file but features like Timeline, Gantt charts, tracking process are saved in different file formats. If you are facing issues in accessing those files, then it may be possible that your files get corrupted. You must know the reasons for the damaged file because if you know the reason then only you can repair MPP files. Some are listed:

  • Power Failure: The MPP file can damage when there is an unexpected shutdown or power failure.
  • Working Over Network: If a user is trying to open the MPP file over a network for editing purpose, then also file saved on the network gets destroyed.
  • Third party add-ons: If a user is including any third-party add-ons in their MS Project then those extra add-ons can affect the files.
  • Network Connectivity Issues: If there is any issue in the connectivity of the network while accessing the MS Project, then also there is a possibility of data file damage.
  • File Size: If a user is kept on adding additional tasks in files and exceeding the size of the file above the limit, then due to the high complexity of the project, it will lead to errors in the project and make the file corrupt.

Manual Approach to Repair MPP Files

Due to the above-discussed reasons for file corruption, anyone can lose their valuable information. So there is an internal option called “Detect and Repair” provided by Microsoft project can help a user to restore the file automatically. But this tool can only detect the installation settings and other minor issues. So it is nearly impossible to recover highly corrupted MPP file. One can follow below methods to repair the file manually:

  • Method 1- Saving Project file from MS Project Server

A user can create an instance of the project and can import an old file into it to recover damaged MPP file. Follow the below steps:

  1. Open MS Project Professional.
  2. Login with your credentials to Project server.
  3. Now open your project with a question mark.
  4. Click on File and Save your file as the .mpp format.
  5. Now you can check that your project is restored on the server as MPP file.

Now create a new instance of your project file and restore it by overriding previous corrupted MPP file into new project work and repair MPP files. Follow the below steps:

  1. Open Microsoft Project Professional and log in with your credentials.
  2. Click on Tools >> Enterprise Options >> Select option “Import project to enterprise” from the drop-down menu.
  3. Now import the project. Click on Collaborate >> Publish >> All Information.
  4. Click on Collaborate >> Publish >> Republish Assignments.
  5. Now select the option “Override actual work entered by resources”.
  6. Click on OK.
  • Method 2- Convert MPP file to PDF file

To repair MPP files, you can create a PDF file. It will not allow the user to modify anything in the file. Follow the below steps to convert the MPP file to PDF to recover the data:

  1. Open Microsoft Project Professional.
  2. Click on File >> Save As.
  3. Select the PDF format and then click on the Save button.
  • Method 3- Convert MPP file to XML document

To recover unsaved MPP file, save the file in XML file format that can allow a user to save the features of Excel file. For the conversion process, follow the below steps:

  1. Using method 1, import the project into MS Project Server
  2. Open MS Project Professional.
  3. Click on File >> Save As >> XML format >> Save button.
  • Method 4- Recover MPP file as Readable Document

You can recover MPP file in Microsoft Project application. The software provides an option to create a report of your MPP file. You can view that file in a readable view by creating it. You can view the project information in that file but there is no option to edit or change the content of the file.


Conclusion

The above article described in detail about the MPP files. The reasons behind the corruption of this file. One can follow any of the above methods to repair MPP files. These manual approaches are easy to perform. One can perform Microsoft Project corrupt file recovery process with the help of easy techniques.