How to Open Zip Files on Android or Create One Using a File Manager App

Smartphones of today are able to handle a lot more file formats than before. If you often transfer a ton of files to an Android device, the easiest way to do it of course would be to compress it into a zip file before making the transfer. Accessing the documents on the Android device, however, requires one additional task – unzipping them. This can be done using a File Manager app. In this post, we’ll show you how to open zip files on Android as well as create ones using ES File Explorer File Manager app.

How to Open Zip Files on Android

1. Download and install the free file manager app ES File Explorer from Google Play.

2. Open up the app and navigate to the folder containing the zip file.

3. Tap the zip file to view its contents.

If you want to extract the contents of the zip file to a different location:

1. In the location where you have your zip file, long press the file to activate the check box at the bottom of the icon and select it.

2. At the bottom of the screen, tap the More button.

3. A new panel will open up to the left of the screen. Tap Extract to.

4. In the Extract selected file to pop up, you can retain the default selection, which will create a folder in the same location as your zip file. The extracted folder will also carry the same name as the zip file. If you want to choose a different location for extracting the files, select the third option “Choose path”.

5. Tap the path location. This will open up a Current path dialog. Touch the folder where you want to extract the zip files to and click OK.

6. In the Extract selected file to pop up, the new file location path is displayed. Click OK to confirm the extraction.

You will now get a message that the extraction was successful.

You can find all the extracted files by navigating to the appropriate folder (using the drop-down menu at the top of the screen.)

How to Create Zip Files on Android

Just as you can open zip files on Android, you can also compress files on your smartphone to the ZIP format for easier transfers. And you can do that with the same ES File Explorer app. Let’s check out how to do this:

For the purpose of this example, I want to transfer a bunch of photos from my phone and want them to be zipped before I make the transfer.

1. Navigate to the location where you have the files you want to zip.

2. Long press on a file to activate the check box, then tap to select more files.

3. Tap the More button to bring up the action pane on the right side of the screen.

4. Tap Compress.

5. In the ES Zip Viewer dialog box, you can enter a name for the ZIP file in the first dialog box.

6. You can choose to create a ZIP or 7Z file, specify a compression level from the drop-down, and choose an optional password to protect the contents of the zip file.

7. Tap OK.

The compressed ZIP file is now created in the same folder as the original files.

8. To transfer the files from its current location, long press the ZIP file and activate the check mark.

9. Tap the More button, and in the right pane, select Move to.

10. Navigate to the folder where you want to move the ZIP file. and tap OK.

You have now created a ZIP file and transferred it to another location.