Has this ever happened to you?

Well, stop banging your head on the keyboard. We are pleased to offer you the following solution, using the handy MXD Doctor utility.

You need to perform the following setup once:

Open up a blank ArcMap document. Now go to Customize on the tools menu. Click on the Commands tab and select Developer Utilities in the Categories box. You should see the MXD Doctor in the Commands Box. Click and drag the MXD Doctor to one of your toolbars. Now save this ArcMap document to your directory (repair.mxd might be a good name). YOU MUST SAVE IT BEFORE YOU CAN USE THE MXD DOCTOR!!!!

After you’ve done the above setup procedure, you are ready to use MXD Doctor:

With your repair.mxd ArcMap document loaded, click on the MXD Doctor button on the toolbar. In the utility window, select the problematic file in the Broken MXD box. Once you select it, MXD Doctor will diagnose the problems. Click on the Treatment tab, then click on the Fix Document button. Now wait. Patience is a virtue. The MXD doctor will take a bit of time to fix your document, and may draw the document SEVERAL times before it is ready. When the hourglass disappears, the MXD Doctor is done.

The last thing you have to do is save your repaired document to a new file. DON’T SAVE IT TO REPAIR.MXD. You’ll need the repair.mxd to fix other corrupted files.