home / help

Splitting Zip files

WinZip® makes it easy to create Zip files (.zip or .zipx) that are split into smaller pieces of a size that you specify. There are several reasons why you might want to do this, such as:

  • To assist with large downloads. Some users may have difficulty downloading very large Zip files from web sites, FTP sites, etc. You can use the split Zip feature to break large files into smaller pieces that can be downloaded separately.

  • To overcome email size limits, as an alternative to sharing the Zip file to the cloud. Some email systems limit the size of attachments. If you want to email a large Zip file that exceeds your limit, sharing is usually the easiest solution, but, if that is not an option, you can also split the Zip file into smaller parts and email them separately.

To split an existing Zip file into smaller pieces

If you have an existing Zip file that you want to split into multiple pieces, WinZip gives you the ability to do that.

Using the WinZip Ribbon interface

  1. Open the Zip file.
  2. Open the Tools tab.
  3. Click the Split Size dropdown button and select the appropriate size for each of the parts of the split Zip file. If you choose Custom Size in the Split Size dropdown list, another small window will open and allow you to enter in a custom size specified in megabytes.
  4. Now click Split Zip File (to the left of Split Size).
  5. In the Split window, browse to the location where you want to create the new split Zip file.
  6. Type in the file name for the new split Zip file in the File name box.
  7. Click OK.
  8. WinZip will create your split Zip file using the size you specified in step 3 as the maximum size for each part. The result will be one file with a .zip or .zipx extension, and additional files with numeric extensions: .z01 or .zx01, .z02 or .zx02, etc.

To create a new split Zip file

You can create a new split Zip file with the WinZip submenu of the context menu.

  1. Open WinZip and follow steps 2 and 3 above (unless you know the size is set as you want it already).
  2. Highlight the file(s) and/or folder(s) you want to use to create a split Zip file in Windows Explorer or on the Desktop.
  3. Right click in the highlighted area and choose Create a Split Zip File from the WinZip submenu of the context menu.
  4. In the window that opens, change the file name and the destination if you wish, and choose other options, then click Create.

 

Notes

  • Each of the segments of the split Zip file will have a different extension. WinZip creates files with names like Data.z01 or Data.zx01, Data.z02 or Data.zx02, and so on, except for the very last segment of the new Zip file. The last segment will always have either the .zip or .zipx extension, respectively, based on the compression method used when creating the Zip file (e.g., Data.zip, Documents.zipx).
  • To open the split Zip file, open the file with the .zip or .zipx extension. Don't try to open any of the files with the numbered extensions; WinZip won't recognize them as Zip files.
  • Once the split Zip file has been opened, you can work with it much as you would work with a regular Zip file, except you can't add any new files or remove existing files. Some operations such as creating self-extracting Zip files and editing comments are also disabled for split Zip files.
  • The sizes listed as 1.2MB, 1.44MB, and 2.88MB are approximate. The segments of the split Zip file are sized appropriately to fit on media of the specified size. You cannot, however, use decimal points when specifying sizes in the Other size field.
  • The split Zip file format is an extension of the Zip 2.0 specification. Therefore, some Zip utility programs may not be able to open split Zip files. Please see Split Zip file compatibility information for more details.