Fix corrupt ZSH history file Problem zsh: corrupt history file /home/bryancs/.zsh_history Solution: mv ~/.zsh_history ~/.zsh_history_bad strings ~/.zsh_history_bad > ~/.zsh_history fc -R ~/.zsh_history rm ~/.zsh_history_bad Explanation mv ~/.zsh_history ~/.zsh_history_bad - move corrupt file strings ~/.zsh_history_bad > ~/.zsh_history - use strings command to extract strings from corrupt file to new zsh_history file fc -R ~/.zsh_history - use fc command to read history from the new zsh_history file rm ~/.zsh_history_bad - delete corrupt history file