You may get an error prompt displaying the error message Microsoft Office cannot open this file because some parts are missing or invalid when you try to open a Word document or any other Office document on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 computer. This post provides the applicable solutions to this issue.

You’ll receive the following full error message when this issue is triggered on your system;

Microsoft Word
We’re sorry. We can’t open Document because we found a problem with Its contents.
Microsoft Office cannot open this file because some parts are missing or invalid.

Microsoft Office cannot open this file because some parts are missing or invalid

If you have encountered the Microsoft Office cannot open this file because some parts are missing or invalid error message on your Windows 11/10 computer when opening a Microsoft Office document, you can try our recommended solutions below in no particular order and see if that helps you resolve the issue on your system.

1. Check Task Manager
2. Run AV scan on the Word document
3. Open the Word document in Safe Mode
4. Repair and Recover the corrupted Word document

Let’s take a look at the description of the process involved concerning each of the listed solutions

1] Check Task Manager

Among other reasons for the issue, the error can occur when you attempt to access a document written in a previous version of Microsoft Office, such as 2007 or 2003. Some affected users reported that what worked for them in resolving the Microsoft Office cannot open this file because some parts are missing or invalid error on their Windows 11/10 computer was simply open Task Manager, switch to the Processes tab and end task for any WINWORD.EXE process. Once done, re-opened the problematic Word document – the document opened throwing the error prompt but with the repaired file. The final step was to exit the error prompt and click on the repaired file that appeared to the left side of the screen and then saved the file to another location on the local drive.

2] Run AV scan on the Word document

A corrupted Microsoft Office document could due virus/malware infection. So, you can scan the document using Microsoft Defender or any reputable third-party antivirus software to check if the file is malicious or not. Once the scan completes, see if the document can be opened now with all the contents intact. If so, then as a necessary precaution, you should run a full system AV scan.

3] Open the Word document in Safe Mode

A rogue addon or resource can potentially damage or corrupt your Word document. To rule out this possibility as a potential culprit, especially if you have recently installed an addon, you can open Word in Safe Mode and see if the problem you’re currently facing is resolved. If the issue is fixed, then you need to uninstall any addon you installed recently. But, if the issue persists, you can try the next solution.

4] Repair and Recover the corrupted Word document

This solution requires you to Repair and Recover the corrupted Word document. But, keep in mind that you may not be able to recover the document if the type of file corruption suggests that it was opened in Word when it was located on a USB Drive, or saved from Word directly to an external USB drive.

It’s best practice not to work with Word or any Office documents when they are located on a USB drive or save from Word directly to such a drive; doing so could cause catastrophic, unrecoverable corruption of the document. To forestall future occurrences whereby you may lose important documents, we recommend you always save a copy of your document to OneDrive.

Hope this post helps you!

Related:

How do I fix an invalid Word document?

To fix an invalid Word document on your Windows 11/10 PC, follow these steps to repair Word file by Repair option:

• Launch the Microsoft Word app in your system.
• Go to the file option and click to Open.
• Choose the damaged Word file and select the file.
• In below, click to the down arrow on the Open button.
• Here select Open and Repair option to repair Word files.

How do you fix the File is corrupted and cannot be opened Word?

To fix The file is corrupt and cannot be opened in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, you can try this suggestion:

• Launch the Office document on your computer.
• Head to the Files menu.
• Open the Trust Center > Trust Center settings.
• Click on Protected View.
• Now, uncheck all the checkboxes in the tab.
• Click OK and restart the Office.

Why is Word not letting me open a document?

There could be a number of reasons why Word isn’t opening a document on your computer. If Microsoft Word won’t open you can try repairing the Office installation. You can select the option Quick Repair or Online Repair to repair your Office programs.