Word cannot open this file because it is larger than 512 Megabytes

To fix this error message, you have to decrease the size of the Word document. The size of the Word document is directly proportional to the length of the text and the number of images inserted into it. The size of the Word document with uncompressed images is comparatively larger than the Word document with compressed images. Hence, to decrease the size of the Word document, you have to compress the images and then replace the uncompressed images in your Word document with the compressed ones. But you are unable to open the Word document due to this error. Hence, you have to apply a different approach. Follow the steps written below to fix the “Word cannot open this file because it is larger than 512 Megabytes” error. Before you proceed, copy your Word document to another location.

Read: How to get rid of black squares or boxes in Word.

How can I open a Word document larger than 512 MB?

To open a Word document with a size larger than 512 MB, you have to decrease the size of the images that you have inserted in your document. To do this, first, change the extension of your Word document from .docx to .zip by renaming it. This will convert the Word file into a zip folder. After that, open the zip folder and then open the word folder. You will see a media folder there. It contains all the images that you have inserted into your Word document. Now, move the large images from there to another location. This will reduce the size of the Word document. When you are done, rename the zip folder again to the .docx extension. This will convert it into a Word file. Open the Word file and replace the missing images with compressed or optimized images.

Microsoft Office cannot open this file because the .zip archive file is an unsupported versionMicrosoft Office cannot open this file because there are problems with the contentsMicrosoft Office cannot open this file because some parts are missing or invalidWord cannot open the file because the file format does not match the file extension

How do I change MB size in Word?

To reduce the MB size in Word, you have to replace the images in the Word document with compressed images. There are many ways to compress images on Windows. Moreover, you can also use online tools and free software to compress images without losing their quality. Apart from the images, embedded fonts also contribute to the larger size of a Word document. Hence, it is suggested to disable this feature (if you have enabled it). Hope this helps. Read next: Microsoft Word keeps crashing on Windows 11/10.