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Being a professional photographer or just a photography enthusiast, you must be familiar with the RAW file format. RAW image files are uncompressed photos with the best image quality. These types of images are also the best choice for editing and enhancement as they’re exactly what the camera’s sensor has captured.
However, RAW images are immune to corruption or damage like any other image format. These photos can also get pixelated, blurry, experience color issue, etc. due to multiple reasons. It’s important to know the reasons behind the corruption before trying to recover RAW images.
We’ll be discussing some of the most common symptoms of corrupt RAW files and the reasons why RAW files get corrupt. We’ll also outline some practical ways for a smooth RAW image recovery.
Reasons for corruption in RAW files
Before you proceed to know the solutions to recover RAW photos, you first must know the reasons for the corruption. There can be many reasons why you might be facing corruption in your RAW files. Here we are going to mention a few of them, and they are:
- Virus in storage drive.
- Improper SD card ejection practices.
- Interruption in the transfer process of RAW files.
- Unrecognized and undetectable SD cards.
- Clicking images while your camera’s battery is low.
- Clicking images while the storage space in your SD card is almost full.
- Interruption while downloading the image files.
- System crashes while your SD card is still mounted.
How to fix corruption in RAW images?
There are many free methods to repair corrupt JPEG files. But when it comes to RAW files, solutions are a little complicated. Let’s now discuss some easy ways in which you can fix the corruption in the images.
Method 1. Open image with another photo editor software
If you think that the issue with your image file is not corruption but compatibility, try another photo editor software. RAW is not a typical usual image file format like JPEG, PNG, etc. So, it is not supported by many photo editors. So, the reason you might not be able to open your file is that your current software does not support it. Sometimes you might also face trouble when PNG images do not open in Windows 10.
In such a case, you can try opening your RAW files with Adobe Photoshop. Many of us are aware of Adobe Photoshop and know that it has so many features that other software doesn’t have. With it, you can open and edit the images in high quality without any issue.
Method 2. Try converting the image to another file format
If you are unable to open an image of a particular format, you can try converting those images to another format. Converting corrupt images to another format works in many situations. There are many ways you can convert one particular image file format to another. One such method is using online image conversion tools.
Many online websites can convert images to any file format very easily. Mostly, online conversion platforms work similarly in terms of the steps involved. Go to the website and look for a browse option to add the file. While proceeding, select a format you want to convert your file to. Once converted, download the file.
Method 3. Try reducing noise
Reducing noise from the images can help fix their corruption, and it’s the same with RAW files. Here, we are going to mention two ways to do so:
- Try photo editing software
Many photo editing tools can help reduce the noise in RAW images. These photo editing tools are Photoshop, Lightroom, etc. You can try to repair and restore damaged photos using Photoshop or Lightroom. You can fix grains, spots, patches, and color-related issues. If you are not skilled enough, take the help of a professional. - Try noise reduction plugins
RAW files can also be fixed with the help of noise-reduction plugins. For this, you will need to get help from a professional, as this can’t be done by someone who doesn’t have enough knowledge of photo editing. The plugins you can use for this purpose are Photo Ninja, Noise Reducer Pro, Neat Image, etc.
For Mac users
- Try Apple image repair
If you are a Mac user and you are facing this error, it might be due to the Mac’s Photo Library issue. In such a scenario, you can use Apple’s tool to fix the photo library. Once run, this tool can detect and fix the issues in the photo app. This tool can repair the corrupt RAW files automatically in a few steps. Let’s learn these steps:
- Start by clicking on the Photos and then clicking on the Quit Photos option.
- In this step, click on the Option-Command.
- As you proceed, select all the photos’ thumbnails that you want to repair.
- Once you’ve chosen all the thumbnails, click on the Repair option to proceed with fixing the images.
Once all the steps are done successfully, the user needs to wait for the repair process to finish. Once the repair process is done, check the files. If they are fixed, good enough. If not, try the next one.
Fix corrupt images with professional image repair tool
The safest way to recover RAW photos is by fixing them with a reliable photo repair software that can repair and recover images with original quality. Kernel Photo Repair can recover a wide variety of image formats like RAW, JPEG, JPG, BMP, GIF, RIFF, RAF, TIF, PNG, NEF, MRW, etc.
There is no limitation to the file size and the number of files you can fix with this tool. Be it any sort of corruption, minor or severe, you can trust this tool. The tool provides customization options with which one can easily personalize their experience.
Quick steps to fix corruption from images using the tool
In a very few easy steps, the tool can fix any level of corruption from the images. Let’s check out how this tool works with the help of the step-by-step screenshots:
Step 1. Download and install the photo repair software.
Step 2. Click on the add (+) icon on the tool’s home screen to add the image(s) you want to repair. 
Step 3. Select the image(s) you want to proceed with for the repair process.
Step 4. You’ll be able to see all your images listed on the screen. Click on the add and remove icon to add more files or to remove the selected ones, respectively. Click on the bin icon to remove all of them at once.
Step 5. Now, provide a destination for the repaired file on your system. Go to the location, select the folder, and click on OK.
Step 6. As you provide a destination, the repair process will take place. You will get the live report on your screen if the repair is in progress or if it is successful. Wait for the process to finish, and as it gets over, click on the Close button to finish the process.
Note: You can also click on the Save report to CSV to get a detailed CSV report.
How to avoid corruption in RAW files?
There is a solution available for every problem, but why put ourselves in such situations? There are many easy practices you can follow to avoid corruption from happening. Check the list below to learn how to avoid corruption in RAW files:
- Never shoot or click pictures while your camera’s battery is low.
- Always keep enough space in your SD card when you are shooting or clicking images.
- Always use an SD card from the best available brand.
- It’s better if you use a Class 10 memory card.
- Always ensure a proper power supply while transferring or downloading RAW images.
- Never use one SD Card on multiple devices.
- Always keep the practice of ejecting SD cards safely and properly.
These are some of the good practices you can follow to ensure that your RAW files do not get corrupted while you work on them.
Conclusion
The easiest way to fix corruption in RAW files is by using a third-party tool to do so. We recommend Kernel Photo Repair for the same because it is the best way to fix corruption without losing the original quality of the images. We’ve also mentioned a couple of fixes to repair and recover the corrupt RAW files, but none of them assure guaranteed results. Moreover, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to preserve the original quality of the images with manual methods.
Frequently Asked Questions
A. RAW images are the unprocessed image data that’s captured directly from the camera’s sensor. Since they’re unprocessed, these image files have better picture quality and more detail.
A. One of the reasons you might not be able to open your RAW images is because your photo viewer is outdated or doesn’t support the RAW format. In serious cases, your RAW files must’ve gone corrupt which is why they’re now inaccessible.
A. RAW photos can be recovered from a formatted SD card as long as much time hasn’t passed. Use a professional photo repair software to recover corrupted RAW images safely.
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