Gmail – How to allow Gmail to receive ZIP files

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I want to send a zipped file to someone with a Gmail account, but it doesn't arrive. I get a Delivery Status Notification (Failure).

So how can you configure Gmail to receive zip files?

PS the file doesn't contain a virus or other malware.

Best Answer

Google blocks a specific set of executable file types. Zip files are only blocked when they contain any of these file types or if they are encrypted and contain another zip file [source].

You can continue to send zip files by:

  • Not sending zip files containing executable files
  • Renaming the extensions for the executable files or the zip files (which then needs to be renamed back before use)

Some of the executable file types that are currently blocked include:

.ade, .adp, .bat, .chm, .cmd, .com, .cpl, .dll, .dmg, .exe,
.hta, .ins, .isp, .jar, .js,  .jse, .lib, .lnk, .mde, .msc,
.msi, .msp, .mst, .nsh, .pif, .scr, .sct, .shb, .sys, .vb,
.vbe, .vbs, .vxd, .wsc, .wsf, .wsh

The compression formats that are evaluated include:

.zip, .tar, .tgz, .taz, .z, .gz, .rar, .bz2
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