This page covers 8 ways to recover corrupted and deleted ZIP files on Windows/Mac. The most recommended ZIP file recovery software is Cisdem Data Recovery. To repair ZIP files free, there are 2 online ZIP repair tools reliable to use. We can also try to repair a ZIP in WinRAR, force the extraction of a ZIP, use Diskinternals ZIP Repair, reinstall decompression tool, and fix with CMD.
Thanks to ZIP, an archive file format supporting lossless data compression, we are free not only to store more files in a limited space, but also to email, transfer and download a wide range of documents quickly without effort. Precisely due to its extensive use, if ZIP files get damaged or deleted out of the blue, our work with .zip folder would be tricky.
Whether you’re just the curious sort or you’re dying to know how to recover a corrupted or deleted ZIP file, this article will suit your needs well.
Cisdem Data Recovery for Windows and Mac
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7
Free Download macOS 10.9 or later
ZIP file loss would be resulted from accidental deletion, sudden power-off, virus infection, partition loss, etc. In case of ZIP deletion/loss, the most practical approach is to use a piece of dedicated ZIP file recovery software, which will ensure the highest success rate of recovery. One of your top priorities must be Cisdem Data Recovery, a feature-packed tool trusted by over 2 million users.
Cisdem is the most advanced data recovery expert with full-range solutions to get back deleted, lost or missing files from any storage devices compatible with Windows/macOS under any frustrating data loss scenarios. It’s powerful enough to be the best ZIP file recovery app on the current market thanks to its remarkably quick scan speeds, incredibly easy-to-use UI, competitive product prices...
Better yet, in addition to restoring deleted ZIP files, Cisdem Data Recovery also supports to repair damaged documents (picture, video, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.) in a ZIP folder. How is this achieved? After scanning, when users click to preview a recoverable items, if Cisdem detects that its original file is corrupted, it will start the repairing process automatically.
Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7 Free Download macOS 10.9 or later 
A ZIP file can be inevitably corrupted because of virus, malware, exposure of media to excessive temperatures or magnetic fields, mechanical problems with disk drives or any other potential factors. It’s also possible to get a damaged ZIP file when you transfer, download or save it improperly. Concerning how to repair ZIP file online for free, check out 2 solutions below.
To be honest, useful ZIP repair tools are not common online. Luckily, OfficeRecovery for Zip Online is such a rare tool you can try, which specializes in scenarios when ZIP file can’t be successfully opened and you see errors or warnings while opening the ZIP archive. It supports the repair of all ZIP compression mode like WinZip, RAR, 7-Zip, InfoZip, etc.
Another trustworthy tool to repair a ZIP file online for free is Zip Repair Online. It’s designed to deal with common errors like cannot opening ZIP file and invalid zipped folder. Likewise, only demo version of your repaired ZIP can be downloaded for free, while an entire document will cost $3.5.
Obviously, we can see that online ZIP repair tools are not completely free, always requiring a payment to get the whole repaired results at final. Nevertheless, here come other 5 methods for corrupted ZIP file recovery, which are truly free to fix some minor errors in your problematic ZIP.
WinRAR refers to a file archiver utility for Windows. It’s universally used to create and view archives in ZIP or RAR file formats, and unpack other numerous archive versions. Many users might lose sight of one useful archive option built in WinRAR utility --- its Repair archive feature. Just follow up the steps below to access it.
The above method proves to be of no avail? Another repair option using WinRAR is to extract your ZIP archive while keeping any broken files and ignoring the error messages. Then you may access to the unzip files working normally.
Born in 2017, DiskInternals ZIP Repair has become a freeware file archiver and ZIP repair tool utilized by numerous Windows users. It performs well in repairing a ZIP file which is inaccessible due to transmission errors or media damage, through restoring ZIP structure and extracting the contents of archive.
Most people tend to input blame to the ZIP corruption when they can’t access their ZIP files as usual. However, that was not always the case. Instead, the problematic ZIP decompression tool is also one of reasons leading to ZIP file not working issue. Under this condition, we’d better attempt to uninstall and reinstall the decompression program for ZIP file recovery.
After the reinstallation, if you still get the corrupted ZIP file error message, move to the final method.
Alternatively, some users have reported that they’ve successfully fixed their corrupted ZIP files by Command Prompt combined with WinZip utility. Once you’re utilizing WinZip on Windows PC, this solution is exactly for you. Even if you’re not, you can download WinZip app at first and then check out the following guide to recover corrupted ZIP file.
Connie has been writing for Mac productivity and utility apps since 2009. Each review and solution is based on her practical tests, she is aways energetic and trustworthy in this field.
