Have you downloaded any zip files on Android phone and don’t know how to open or read them? Do you want to compress multiple files into a zip file on your mobile? You can zip, unzip, update zip files using the stock File Manager or Explorer app on Android devices, such as Samsung, LG, HTC, Lenovo, Huawei, Xiaomi and so on. If your device doesn’t have the zip/unzip utility, you can download a third-party zip, archive app, or even file managers with the zip/unzip feature.
We will use a LG phone with Android 7 in this tutorial. The steps should be similar on other Android mobile phones.
Open, preview, extract Zip file on Android phone
Run the stock File Manager app on your Android phone. Browse to the folder where you have downloaded or saved the ZIP file to. Tap on the ZIP file to open it, you can then preview all content in the ZIP file before extracting them to your phone.
Tap Extract button, then select the files included in the archive file that you want to extract. Touch the Extract button again to unzip all or the selected files only. The extracted files will be saved to the same path as the original ZIP file.
Create ZIP files on Android phone
To compress or zip files on Android, open the File Manager app, move all the files you want to compress to the same folder first. Then tap Menu (three dots at the top right corner), choose Compress from the drop-down menu, you can then tap to select files. Tap Compress button at the bottom, give the new compressed file a name and tap Save to create a zip file with the selected files on your Android device.
If you need to update a zip file, add new files to zip file or delete some files from a zip file, you can unzip it, delete unwanted files or add extra files, then select and compress the files into a zip file on your Android phone.
Zip and Unzip files using ES
There are many third-party ZIP or UNZIP apps you can find from Google Play Store. My favorite is ES File Explorer (File Manager). It is a full-featured file (Images, Music, Movies, Documents, app) manager for both local and networked use. The built-in ES Zip Viewer can help Android users quickly view, open zip files, unzip files, compress files into zip, 7z or gz format. You can even set a password to protect the compressed files using ES file manager.
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Needs to be updated for the times. Such example is that I have a Samsung Galaxy note 9 and these instructions did not help. I had to navigate through google to find the proper instructions. Also including a method to accomplish the task of creating a zip file on the PC would be appreciated and helpful to all that don’t know how.
You can also use this free web service for zipping files: https://freetools.site/file-compressor/zip