JPGRepair

Under certain circumstances, it may happen that JPG files become corrupt. If the root of the trouble seems to have something to do with invalid markers or headers, turning to a software utility such as JPGRepair could cater to your needs.

First off, it should be brought into discussion the fact that the application is all about ease of use and navigation. At the top of the main window, you can browse a directory tree in order to select the corrupt photo you want to safeguard.

But before you do that, you need to be aware that, in order to fix corrupt headers, the application relies on a reference file. To be more specific, the app requires that you use another JPG taken with the same camera and whose resolution and orientation are identical to those of the original. In order for the app to work, you need to rename this picture to sample.jpg and place it in the same folder as the file you want to process.

There is no need to select the reference file, with the program being able to automatically extract all the data it requires without any help on your part. To be more specific, what it does is merge the two headers so that the corrupt one is once again functional.

Another aspect you may want to know about is the fact that support for batch tasks is provided, which means you can fix multiple JPG files at the same time.

Regardless of your choice, it should also be noted that a preview of the resulting image is provided in the main window along with details on its height, width, color depth, and restart markers.

All things considered, JPGRepair is a tool that could come in handy when trying to address problems caused by corrupt headers or invalid markers in JPG files, and while it is pretty easy to figure out. It comes with one downside, namely the need for a reference file for fixing corrupt headers.