fix-keynote 0.3.0

A tool to recover and reconstruct corrupted Apple Keynote presentation files.

FixKeynote

FixKeynote is a tool intended to help recover corrupted Apple Keynote (.key) files. It works by extracting text, presenter notes, and images from the corrupted archive and then using AppleScript to create a new presentation with the recovered data.

Installation

Download the App

You can download the latest compiled version of FixKeynote from the Releases. Look for the latest release and download the FixKeynote.dmg bundle.

MacOS gatekeeper workaround

Because this app is not distributed via the Mac App Store and is not signed with a paid Apple Developer certificate, dragging it from the .dmg or downloading it might trigger a macOS security warning:

"Apple cannot check it for malicious software"

To bypass this one-time warning, open System Settings > Privacy & Security, scroll down, and click "Open Anyway".

How to Use FixKeynote

There are two main ways to use this tool: as a standalone macOS application or a command-line tool.

1. Using the macOS App (FixKeynote.app)

If you have the compiled Application bundle:

Drop your corrupted .key files into a folder named fix_keynote on your Desktop (~/Desktop/fix_keynote/). Then, simply double-click on FixKeynote.app. The application will automatically detect all .key files in that folder, extract their data, and reconstruct them next to the original files.

2. Using the Command Line (CLI)

Use uv to run the CLI directly on a specific file or an entire folder:

# Run on a specific file
uvx fix_keynote /path/to/corrupted_presentation.key

# Or process everything in ~/Desktop/fix_keynote/
uvx fix_keynote ~/Desktop/fix_keynote/

How to Build the macOS App

To build a standalone macOS application bundle (.app) so you can easily move it or place it in your Applications folder, we use PyInstaller.

Prerequisites

Make sure you have uv installed, then install the required build dependencies:

uv sync --group build

Build Command

You can easily build the FixKeynote.app bundle and copy it to your Desktop using the included Makefile. Run the following command at the root of the project:

make build

Output

Once the process is complete, your compiled application will be automatically copied to your Desktop (~/Desktop/FixKeynote.app).

You can clean the build artifacts later by running:

make clean