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Free WinZip For iOS Handles Email AttachmentsFree WinZip For iOS Handles Email Attachments
iPhones and iPads are pretty bad at handling email Zip file attachments. WinZip for iOS fixes the problem for free but lacks features common in other file managers.
2 Min Read
Mobile platforms don't have traditional file systems and aren't very good at handling files outside of a specific application context. So when someone e-mails you a Zip file and you open it on your iPhone the experience is pretty bad. There is no app built in to the iPhone to let you view the contents of the Zip or do anything with it.
So if you have an iOS device, WinZip for iOS is a good free app. Wherever you encounter Zip files it can open the file and generally let you view the contents. For the most part, you'll need this with e-mail attachments, but I was able to use it to open a Zip file in my Dropbox folder as well. It can copy file contents to the clipboard and read the following file types: .txt, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .rtf, .pdf, .key, .numbers, .pages, .htm, .htm, .jsp, .bmp, .jpg, .jpeg, .tif, .tiff, .png, and .gif.
There are many file managers for iOS and Android (although there is no WinZip for Android), some free and some not. Most of them do a lot more than WinZip, which can only unzip and view files, not create them. WinZip can only handle Zip files, including encrypted ones, but not other less-common archive file types such as RAR and TAR.
What features are there in WinZip for iOS worked well in my testing, but Zip file handling is a commodity feature these days. Other file managers for iOS handle many more file formats for compression and viewing and add features such as more general-purpose local file management, full text search, and extended file management for PCs and Macs when the mobile device is tethered.
WinZip for iOS is a good program, as far as it goes, but it doesn't go very far. If you don't have another file manager you will be better off with WinZip and maybe the WinZip brand is comforting to some. But a better answer is to search for and use a better file manager.
Name: WinZip
The iOS version of WinZip is a good, very basic Zip file attachment handler. It allows you to open and view contents in Zip files from e-mail and cloud storage. But compared with a full-featured file manager, WinZip is a weak offering.
Price: Free
Pro:
Good handling of Zip files.
Good viewers.
Free.
Con:
Handles only Zip files.
No local file management.
Cannot create or encrypt files, just read and decrypt
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