Colored bands in a photo: display fault or file corruption?

Patterns that suggest corrupted image data.

File corruption often creates abrupt horizontal bands, blocks borrowed from earlier parts of the image or colours that change at a precise line. The subject may remain recognisable while rows below the break are offset. A monitor fault usually affects many files, not one specific photo in the same repeatable position.

Eliminate the screen and application first.

Open the file in two independent viewers and, if possible, on a phone and a computer. Exporting or taking a screenshot is not a diagnostic because that operation may hide the original structure. Compare the untouched duplicate in each viewer.

If every viewer shows the same defect, the evidence points back to the file.

Why one damaged segment affects later rows.

Compressed formats store instructions and differences rather than every pixel independently. When bytes are inserted, removed or changed, the decoder can lose the boundary between blocks. Later data may still exist but be interpreted with the wrong alignment. Resynchronisation searches for a point where coherent decoding can resume.

Judge a real before-and-after result.

PixMedic uses genuine corrupted photos in its examples. The repaired copy should restore a coherent scene without pretending that destroyed bytes have returned. Zoom into the transition point and look for thin residual lines, repeated areas and colour continuity.

Testing one photo is free and requires no card. The trial does not include videos.

Repair is not image generation.

A structural repair preserves recoverable content. It does not invent a face, object or texture to fill a missing area. When the remaining bytes cannot produce a useful image, the photo is classified as irreparable and is not charged.