List ZIP contents
See every file in an archive, with sizes and dates, without extracting anything.
Processed in your browser. This file is converted on your device and is never uploaded.
Converter
.zip up to 250 MB. You can also drag a file here.
No file selected.
About this tool
Before extracting an archive it is often useful to know what is in it: how many files, how large they are once unpacked, and whether anything looks wrong. This tool reads the archive's directory and shows every entry without decompressing a single byte.
The listing can also be downloaded as CSV, which is handy for comparing two archives or recording what a delivery contained.
Supported formats and limits
- Input
- .zip
- Output
- .csv (text/csv)
- Output name
- The archive name with -contents.csv appended, for example photos.zip becomes photos-contents.csv.
- File size limit
- 250 MB
- Processing
- In your browser. The file is not uploaded.
How to use it
- Choose a .zip file. Its contents are listed straight away.
- Read through the entries on the page.
- Select Convert to download the listing as a CSV file.
Limitations
- Only the archive directory is read, so file contents are neither checked nor verified. A listed entry could still be damaged.
- Sizes come from the archive's own records. A malformed archive can misreport them.
- Only ZIP is supported. RAR, 7z, TAR, and GZIP are not.
- Encrypted entries are listed, but their contents cannot be inspected.
- Timestamps are stored in local time by most archiving tools, without a timezone, so they are shown as recorded.
Common problems
The file was refused before anything started.
List ZIP contents checks the extension before it reads a byte, and it accepts .zip. Browsers report file types inconsistently enough that the extension is what decides.
Rename the file if the extension is simply wrong, or convert it to one of those first. A file whose extension does not match its contents is refused for the same reason, and that one needs converting rather than renaming.
It said the file was too large.
The limit here is 250 MB. It is not a policy but a measurement: everything runs on your own device, and past that size a phone runs out of memory rather than finishing slowly.
Split the file, reduce it before converting, or use a desktop program for that one. A machine with more memory will manage more, but the limit does not know which machine it is on.
I selected several files and only one converted.
This tool takes one file at a time. Doing several at once would multiply the memory in use, which is the thing most likely to fail on a phone.
Convert them one after another. Nothing is kept between them, so there is no state to reset.
Nothing happened for a long time on the first run.
List ZIP contents downloads a library before it can begin, and it is fetched once and then reused. That wait is before the conversion rather than during it, which is why the progress bar sits still.
Leave the tab open and in the foreground; a background tab is throttled by the browser. Every conversion after the first one in a session skips this.
The tab reloaded itself part-way through.
The browser ran out of memory and restarted the page. At sizes approaching 250 MB this is the failure a phone hits first, and it looks like a crash rather than an error.
Try a smaller file, close other tabs, or run it on a computer. Nothing was uploaded or lost — the original file is untouched on your device.
The result opened in the wrong program.
The output is a .csv file, and your system opens that extension with whatever it was told to. Nothing about the conversion decides it.
Open it from inside the program you want, or change the default for .csv in your system settings. The file itself is correct.
Frequently asked questions
- Is my archive uploaded?
- No. The archive is read entirely in your browser. It never leaves your device and no request carrying its contents is made.
- Why is this faster than extracting?
- A ZIP file ends with a directory listing every entry. Reading it means reading a small part of the file, so even a very large archive lists almost instantly.
- What does a blocked status mean?
- The entry cannot be extracted, either because it is encrypted or because its stored path points outside the archive. It is still listed so you can see the archive in full.
- What is the expansion warning about?
- An archive that unpacks to hundreds of times its own size is characteristic of one built to exhaust memory rather than to store files. The warning is a prompt to check the listing before extracting.
- Do I need to install anything or create an account to use List ZIP contents?
- No, to all of it. List ZIP contents runs inside the browser you already have, with no sign-up, no download, no watermark on the result, and no cap on how many files you convert. There is nothing to uninstall afterwards either, because nothing was installed.
- Does List ZIP contents work offline?
- Once the page has loaded, yes. The conversion runs on your device, so it needs no connection to do the work. The first visit fetches the page and the code that does the converting; after that a lost connection stops nothing, and a converted file appears exactly as it would online.
- How large a file can List ZIP contents handle?
- The limit is 250 MB. It is a deliberate one rather than a technical ceiling: the real constraint is memory, and a file that decodes to more than the device can hold fails in a way that is hard to explain. Phones run out well before laptops do, which is why the limit is set where it is.
- Can I convert several files at once with List ZIP contents?
- Not here: this tool takes one file at a time, because what it does depends on choices you make about that particular file. Convert them one after another, or look at the batch converters in the same category, which are built for a folder at a time.