JPEG Medic // Accurate Manual JPEG Recovery
Table of Contents
  1. Overview
  2. Theory of JPEG Repair
    1. JPEG structure
    2. How to fix broken JPEG file
  3. Working with the Program
    1. Main menu
    2. Virtual folder tree
    3. Files panel
    4. Preview panel
    5. Cluster view
    6. Hex view
  4. Repairing JPEG image
    1. Opening JPEG file
    2. Repair window
      1. Menu commands
    3. Repair procedure
      1. Visual analysis and localization of damaged MCUs
      2. Finding the next correct MCU
      3. Deleting damaged MCUs
      4. Inserting empty MCUs
      5. Color correction
        1. Automatic color correction
        2. Manual color correction
      6. Filling empty MCUs with data
        1. Use the thumbnail image to fill the empty MCUs
        2. Auto-generate missing content
    4. Saving repaired JPEG image
    5. Repairing fragmented JPEG file
    6. Repairing damaged JPEG image based on SOS marker
    7. Repairing JPEG file encoded by ransomware

Virtual folder tree

The leftmost area in the main window is a virtual folder tree. Upon opening a JPEG file or a file that contains multiple JPEG images inside (for example, a RAW file created by a digital camera, or a disk image), JpegMedic automatically creates virtual folders based on the inner structure of the opened file. Virtual folders are based on EXIF data and the structure of the disk image.

JpegMedic folder tree

The following folders can be displayed, all or only some of them:

  • All. Contains all found images.
  • Size. Contains a number of subfolders with images of the corresponding sizes in them.
  • Camera. Contains camera name subfolders. JPEG images made with a certain camera are placed into the corresponding subfolder.
  • Date. Contains year subfolders. Allows you to select images made in specific year.
  • Broken. Contains damaged images only.
  • SOS marker Contains found but unidentified images that do not have metadata associated with them. Every subfolder in the SOS marker folder is an offset in the file the corresponding image begins at. Images in this folder are not shown in the All folder. Please refer to this section to learn how to work with SOS markers.