How to download a zip file on chromebook

Unlike Windows and Mac, Chromebooks don’t open the zip files normally, it considers zip file as separate storage and mounts it like an external hard disc. Though the implementation is a bit sketchy, you can easily fix it. Here is a step-by-step process of how you can zip and unzip files on the Chromebook.

How to Zip Files on Chromebook

To Zip files,  select the files you want to place in the zip. You can do that by pressing the ‘Ctrl’ key on your keyboard and tap on the file to select. You can even select multiple files in a similar way.

Now right-click/two-finger tap on your trackpad and select the option “Zip Selection” in the pop-up menu.

It will create a Zip File in the same file location at the bottom.  It will not completely move the files into the zip, they will just get copied to the zip file.

By default, the name of the file will be set to “Archive.zip”. But you can double-tap on the file and select the option “Rename” to rename the zip name. That’s how you can create zip files on your Chromebook and you can send it to anyone online.

How to Unzip Files on Chromebook

To Unzip the file, double click on the zip file to open it as separate mounted storage. Chrome OS shows mounted devices in a left sidebar.

Not just showing it as separate storage, even the complete process of extracting is similar to how we deal with a hard disc. To extract the files, select the files you want to extract. If you want to extract all the files, then press ctrl + A to select every file.

Now right-click/two-finger tap and select the option “Copy” in the pop-up menu.

Now navigate to the destination where you want the files to extract and right-click/ two-finger tap and select the option “Paste” in the pop-up menu to paste the files over there.

Now you can unmount the zip file by tapping on the unmount icon beside the zip file.

Better Use a Third-Party App

By default, Chrome OS can only open zip files in .zip and .rar formats. To unzip any other zip file format, you need to install this chrome extension. The best part about this extension is, unlike other extensions, it merges with the native files app on chrome OS as it is specially made for the Chromebooks.

To install, open chrome and open Chrome web store. Now search for Wicked Good Unarchiver and add it to Chrome. Alternatively, you can open this link to directly get to the extension page.

Once done, that’s it. Now your files app can even open 7z, ar, CAB, CPIO, deb, iso, jar, lha, pax, rpm, tar, warc files.

Alternatively

By using the extension, you can only open, but cannot create files. Instead of using some third-party app, just create the zip file in. zip format in the Files app and use the Online Converter Free website to convert it to any file format you want.

To do that, just open the website choose the file you want to convert, and select the file type to which you want to convert and hit convert. Online converter Free will automatically convert the file and you can download it.

Wrapping up

There are even many third-party apps like Zip exactor, Archive Extractor, Zip Share which are web apps, or you can even use Android apps like File manager Plus. But upon usage, using Wicked Good Unarchiver felt better because of its complete integration into the Chrome OS files app.