How to Attach Zip Files to Gmail

Statistics from the email industry show that Gmail is the most used email platform in countries worldwide. Around 27% of emails are opened in a Gmail inbox with more than 1.8 billion active users. Attaching files and folders is one of the essential things you can do with Gmail. But there is much more to using Gmail's file attachment dialog than just clicking on the paperclip icon and hitting send.

For example:

●        How big can a file or folder be?

●        How big a file can the person you're sending an email to get?

●        If the file is too big, what will happen?

●        What file types can you attach?

This article will answer these questions and more as we explain how to send Zip files in Gmail and how a program like WinZip® Enterprise can help you get around problems like attachment size limits or blocked attachments.

Why You May Need to Use Gmail to Send Zip Files

Attachments to Gmail can only be 25 MB (megabytes) in size. This means that no single attachment can be more significant than 25 MB, and if you have more than one attachment, the total length of all of them cannot be more critical than 25 MB. Most audio and video files and big PDF files are too big to attach to a Gmail message.

Attachments are encoded, making things even more complicated and slightly increasing the file size. Attachments more significant than 25 MB are automatically stored in Google Drive, and your email will include a link to the file's location in Google Drive. But this option can cause problems for the recipient, like limiting who can share and access what files at the admin level.

By zipping a file, you can reduce its size so that Gmail doesn't send it to Google Drive, where the recipient will have to look for it. You also don't have to add people to your Google Drive folder to ensure they have the correct permissions to access and open it.

Your Gmail recipient can download your Zip files quickly and safely from your email. The Zip compression format is used to shrink a file's size without changing the original data's quality. This makes them easier to send and takes up less space on your computer. Email takes up about 28% of the average work day.

Most people who work send at least 40 emails every day. Every time the sender or the recipient has to leave their email platform to deal with a file or attachment, it slows down their work. When you multiply that loss of productivity by the number of employees in a business, you can see how big it is.

What Exactly Is a ZIP File, and How Does It Work?

Zip is an archive format that makes sending and storing large files or groups of files more accessible and faster by making them smaller. An archive file is created when many different data types are compressed and stored in a single file. Zip files are reliable, easy to use, and unique because they can contain hundreds of other file extensions.

They can handle all kinds of data, and each file is compressed separately. There are two methods to compress files: ones that lose data and ones that don't. Zip files are lossless. That means there is no data loss when you zip them and unzip them.

When you uncompress the data, it goes back to how it was when you first compressed it. How is that possible with a Zip file? Each byte of information in a file is not different. A lot of it is already said. Depending on the file type, algorithms can eliminate some of this duplication.

As an example:

●        Text files, database files that look like text files, and pictures in BMP format can all be compressed by at least 90%.

●        MP3s and other audio files can be shortened by 15-20% without affecting the sound quality.

●        Image files like JPEGs can be shrunk by 20–25 percent without hurting the quality of the photos or the data.

●        The size of program files can be reduced by 50%.

You only have one way to show the same data instead of many. Lossless file compression, for example, is like getting this data string, AAABBBBBCC, and reducing its redundancies so that they fit into this smaller data string, A3B5C2.

It's the same information, but it's been simplified, so it takes up less room. The numbers show how many times the letter before it is repeated. So, when you decompress (unzip, open, or extract), your file will tell you how to get it back to its original state without losing any data. So it is called "lossless."

By putting attachments to emails in a Zip file, you can:

●        Send more files and folders with a lot of different file types.

●        You don't have to make and send a bunch of extra emails.

●        Your files will be uploaded faster, and your email recipient will be able to download them more quickly. This will reduce the server's chance of time out if the message receiver has a narrow bandwidth.

●        Stop wasting trying to find a way around Gmail's 25 MB attachment size limit for people whose email platforms have even smaller limits.

●        Save space (and money) for you, your organization, and the person receiving your message.

How WinZip Enterprise makes sending ZIP files better and easier

You could always zip and send data directly from your device's folder window, but WinZip Enterprise makes data more secure by encrypting files at the file level and protecting them with passwords. This process is necessary when sharing sensitive data, such as internal resources, confidential information, and data subject to legal and regulatory requirements.

WinZip Enterprise also helps businesses avoid problems with blocked files when they send emails with attached files. Gmail blocks messages that could spread viruses, like those with executable files, specific links, or file extensions. If you see This message was stopped because its content could be a security risk, your attachment has a file type that isn't allowed. Some of the blocked formats in Gmail are, but are not limited to:

●        .rar

●        .exe

●        .iso

●        .dmg

●        .appx

●        .ade

●        .cmd

●        .sys

●        .vbs

●        .wsc

●        .msp

●        .nsh

Even if you take steps to compress files into a Zip file, Gmail will block the attachment if it finds a prohibited file format inside the archive file. You can use WinZip Courier to set up file extension options and get around file locking with WinZip Enterprise.

To do this, you can change the attachment options and use custom file extensions, like changing the a.zip file to the a.zea file for a zipped email attachment. Now that you know how to make and send Zip files through Gmail and how tools like WinZip Enterprise can make the process easier, it's time to try it yourself.