How to open a zip file on a phone or Chromebook

Your phone or Chromebook can usually open a zip without an app. Where to find that option and what to do on a locked-down computer or with a stubborn archive.

Last updated September 21, 2026

Zip files arrive by email, from download links and from colleagues sending a folder. On a computer you double-click them. On a phone or Chromebook it is less obvious, but it rarely needs an app.

iPhone and iPad

Open the Files app, find the zip and tap it. It extracts into a folder with the same name next to it. If the zip came in Mail or Messages, save it to Files first from the share sheet. The Files app can also create zips: select files, then use Compress from the menu.

Android

The Files by Google app and most phones’ own file managers, extract zips: tap the file and choose Extract. Where the phone’s file manager doesn’t support it, a browser tool does.

Chromebook

The Files app opens a zip as if it were a drive. Copy out what you need, then eject it.

When the built-in option isn’t enough

On a work computer where you can’t install anything, a shared library machine or when you only want one file from a large archive, unzip opens the archive in the browser. It lists every file with its size, previews images and text files and lets you download single files or everything. It checks each file against the checksum stored in the zip as it goes and refuses archives built to trick extractors, such as ones that try to write files outside their folder.

When a zip won’t open

• The download stopped early. Zips keep their index at the end, so an incomplete file fails immediately. Download again.
• It isn’t really a zip. RAR and 7z archives are sometimes named .zip. The file type checker says what it really is.
• It is damaged. If the sender published a checksum, compare it, as described in how to verify a file checksum.

Sending one back

To reply with several files, pack them with create zip. The limits and tricks for email are in how to send a folder by email.