Something weird with .zip files

General Help
1

Hi folks,

Here's my problem : my job implies being a nomad from time to time. As I'm fed up with Win at the office, I've install Zorin on my laptop.

When I receive some zipped files from work via email, sometimes I'm utterly unable to unpack them on my laptop. But I've got no problem to unpack them on my win desktop at the office, nor on my own at home (Linux Mint installed).

I'm damned if I understand what's happening... What's your opinion ?

2

What means ''unable to unpack them'' exactly? Do You get an Error Message? Does simply nothing happens? Do the Extract-Window open? Could You offer a Screenshot of the Issue?

3

Ok, I'll try to be as precise as possible (sorry no screenshot at the moment).

Here's what happen :slight_smile:

  • right click on the file, choosing "extract here"
  • extract-window opening
  • getting an error message
4

Try see what happen if you do it via terminal.

unzip XXXX.zip
1 Like
5

And what says the Error Message?

And what happens when You instead of right-clicking make a double-click on it?

1 Like
6

Since you mention this is for your job, it could be that the zip files are encrypted. Is that the case?

7

No, not encrypted. Out on vacations right now, so no files to try and to show what's wrong.

The problem is quite a random one, can be month between and it happens also with files send by relatives and friends (either win or mac users).

8

Ah, sent files. Do you download the zip file from the mail message? You are not trying to unzip from the mail message are you?

9

No, downloading the.zip file first, then unzipping it.

Been doing that umpteenth of time (under Win, OS X, LM, LL), encountered the problem only with Zorin OS.

10

Whenever you have a sample, try the following:

  1. Right-click on an empty spot and select "Open in Terminal".

  2. Enter the following command:

    file your_filename.zip

    Replacing "your_filename.zip" with the actual filename on your device, of course.

  3. Repeat the same steps with another zip file that you can extract normally.

This should tell us if there's a difference.

Note: the output of the command will include the name of the file. For example:

image
image1016×663 103 KB

I mention this in case your file names are sensitive in nature, so that you can omit that from the output when you share it here.

11

Will do.