I don't see how the file is corrupted when I can read it in Notepad
Corrupted means one of the keys may have been missing that is part of the project file format. The IDE unable to parse it correctly.
You still can read it using Notepad.
The keys includes Build1, File1, File2, ..., FileGroup1, FileGroup2, ..., Library1, Library2, ..., ManifestCode, Module1, Module2, ..., NumberOfFiles,
NumberOfLibraries, NumberOfModules.
Example, if this file has NumberOfFiles=3 but it only has File1 and File2 then File3 is missing. This is a "corrupted" file.