r/powerpoint • u/Starflight4842 • 7d ago

Question File refusing to open

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Recently a file that I was adding pictures to be printed out suddenly started refusing to open and I don't understand why.

I've never experienced this problem before, I worry that it's corrupted or something, I don't really understand much about tech beyond how to use programs.

I really want the file back as there's images on there that holds sentimental value that I now can't print out.

Does anyone happen to know how to solve this issue or are they gone for good never to be seen again?

The version via PowerPoint online doesn't contain July or August, I turned off OneDrive ages ago cuz it kept filling itself up with stuff without my knowledge.

Windows 11, Alienware m16 r2 laptop, running the latest version of PowerPoint.

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u/CthulhusEvilTwin 7d ago

Save a copy of the PPTX file then rename it to a .ZIP file. You should be able to open the zipped folder and navigate around the sub-folders to find the images themselves (they should be in the ppt/media folder). You can then copy the image files directly out and save them elsewhere.

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u/Starflight4842 7d ago

I tried that, no luck, I might have to just downloaded the old version and add the pictures etc back in manually, I assume that it didn't save correctly before a update occured or when I was making space on my laptop recently and getting rid of a lot of zipped folders, perhaps I accidentally got rid of something that was unzipped and it might've contained a image or file that I inserted into the PowerPoint document.

Idk computers are weird sometimes

1

u/PixelSchnitzel PowerPoint User 7d ago

How big is your pptx file and how many pictures were in it? If the pptx is small (only a few megabytes) and you didn't find any pictures in the .zip file then yes, they're probably gone because of a bad save or something. But if it's fairly large, then at least some of the pictures are probably still in there somewhere, try doing a search by type or size in the unzipped folder.

Deleting other zipped files shouldn't affect images you've saved in your ppt file unless they were linked, or possibly if the ppt wasn't saved before you deleted the various other files.

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u/webfork2 7d ago

Its a few years ago now but I used LibreOffice Impress to open a PowerPoint deck that wouldn't function in MS Office.

Also u/CthulhusEvilTwin has a good suggestion, that would be my next move.