Photo repair for damaged and corrupted images
A photo repair tool for fixing corrupted, faded or scratched images. Combines file-level recovery (JPEG header, EXIF, broken markers) with pixel-level restoration (denoise, sharpen, white-balance, scratch removal). Supports JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, AVIF and TIFF.
How to repair a damaged photo
Drop a JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, AVIF or TIFF file. Files up to 100 MB are supported.
See detected issues — broken markers, truncated bytes, corrupt EXIF, color drift, noise, low resolution.
Auto Doctor for one-click repair, Quick Fix for file-level only, or Manual Lab for full control.
Watch the progress through Diagnose · Repair · Restore · Verify stages.
Slide between Before and After, choose JPEG / PNG / WebP and download.
Fix damaged JPEGs, restore faded scans and rescue photos that won't open
What can be repaired — and what will not come back
The tool recognizes damage before it fixes anything. Here is what it finds and what it applies to each case, so you can tell in advance whether your photo is worth uploading.
| What is wrong | What is applied |
|---|---|
| File is truncated or incomplete | Rebuilds the JPEG structure and pulls out the part of the image that did survive. |
| Missing or invalid SOI marker (file header) | Rebuilds the header from a donor photo — an intact shot from the same camera. |
| Corrupted APP / COM segment | Cuts out the damaged service segment and leaves the image data untouched. |
| EXIF metadata is corrupted | Strips the broken metadata so the file opens in ordinary viewers again. |
| Low contrast — narrow tonal range (faded) | Restores contrast and color balance from the histogram. |
| High noise level detected | Bilateral filtering — smooths the grain while keeping edges sharp. |
| Image is blurred — even its sharpest area holds little detail | Deconvolution: reverses the blur instead of sharpening edges on top of it. |
| Low resolution — can be upscaled | Real-ESRGAN super-resolution. |
Worth knowing beforehand
- Three modes: “Quick fix” touches only the file structure and leaves the pixels alone; “Auto doctor” makes the diagnosis and picks the chain; “Manual lab” opens every module separately.
- What was never written cannot be recovered: if part of the image never made it onto the memory card, the tool shows the percentage lost instead of drawing it in.
- Super-resolution (Real-ESRGAN), face restoration (GFPGAN) and colourisation invent plausible detail — they do not bring the original back. For documents, evidence and archives that difference matters.
What this tool can do
What you can fix with this tool
- Corrupted JPEG files that open as a gray screen, a half-image or fail to load completely
- Old scanned photos with scratches, dust, fading and color drift
- Photos with broken or missing EXIF metadata that confuse other apps
- Files with the wrong extension (a HEIC saved as .jpg, a PNG saved as .heic, etc.)
- Truncated downloads where the last part of the file is missing
- Low-resolution images that need cleanup before printing or sharing
Supported formats
Input: JPEG, JPG, PNG, HEIC, HEIF, WebP, AVIF, TIFF, BMP, GIF. Output: JPEG (quality 60-100), PNG, WebP.
Frequently asked questions
My JPEG opens as a gray or half-broken image. Can you fix it?
Often yes. Quick Fix rebuilds the JPEG header, restores SOI / EOI markers and re-encodes the file via Canvas. If the main image stream is destroyed but the EXIF thumbnail survived, EXIF Rescue can recover at least a small preview.
What is the difference between Quick Fix and Auto Doctor?
Quick Fix only touches the file structure — header, segments and container — without changing pixels. Auto Doctor runs Quick Fix first and then chains visual restoration (white-balance, denoise, sharpen) on top of it.
Does the tool support HEIC photos from iPhone?
Yes. HEIC and HEIF files are decoded via the browser and converted to JPEG, PNG or WebP during repair.
The file will not open at all. Is anything left to recover?
Often yes, because a camera writes more than one copy of the picture. Alongside the full image, a JPEG usually carries a small preview thumbnail inside its EXIF block — and that thumbnail sits in a different part of the file from the main image stream. When the stream itself is too damaged to decode, the preview frequently survives intact, which is why a photo that every viewer refuses to open can still yield a real, if small, picture. That is the last resort. Before it, the file-level pass tries to rebuild missing markers, strip corrupt segments and re-encode the container, which recovers the full-size image when the damage is structural rather than in the pixels.
Can it recover a deleted photo?
No. This tool repairs files that still exist but are damaged or unreadable. It cannot recover photos deleted from disk or memory card.
Why show JPEG byte markers and EXIF tree?
The Forensic Inspector lets you see exactly which part of the file is broken — useful for photographers, archivists and anyone debugging camera or phone bugs.
We can! Just send us a quick message with your idea. If you'd like to discuss it in detail, leave your email and we'll get back to you. You can stay anonymous.
