"The archive is either in unknown format or damaged".
"The archive is either in unknown format or damaged" means the archive tool could not identify a supported, internally consistent archive structure. Upload the ZIP for a repair attempt and see a free list of any members recovered into a rebuilt archive. In the small measured set, about half of the ZIPs were fully rebuilt; the rest yielded only partial member recovery.
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Recovering what we can.
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- Repair in progress
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Analyzing your file...
Here's what we recovered.
Review the recovery summary before checkout.
Repair your file
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You preview before you pay. If the download is materially worse than the preview you approved, we'll refund you.
Your files auto-delete — delete them sooner anytime
No person looks at your file as part of repair
We couldn't recover this one.
The file is too damaged to rebuild, so there is nothing to preview and no charge.
What stopped you continuing? One tap tells us why.
Try a deep repair
The repair engine can try a longer pass on the file you already uploaded.
Machine-only processing; no human views files; nothing is sent to an outside AI.
Have another clip from the same device?
A healthy video recorded on the same device — ideally the same settings — gives the repair engine a template to rebuild from. It can unlock repairs that fail on their own.
Unrepaired files are kept encrypted for up to 30 days, then deleted.
FileFix can't fix that kind of file yet.
Right now we repair video, audio, document, and image files (MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, AVI, TS, MTS, M2TS, MPG, MPEG, VOB, 3GP, WebM, FLV, M4A, WAV, MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, OPUS, AIFF, XLSX, DOCX, PPTX, ODT, ZIP, RAR, PDF, AI, HEIC, and HEIF). We're adding support for more formats over time.
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Why this happens
This message combines format detection and integrity failure. It can appear when a non-ZIP file has an archive extension, when the archive uses a different or unsupported structure, or when damage removed the end record and central directory a ZIP reader uses to identify and index members.
If surviving ZIP local file headers and member streams remain in the bytes, they can be scanned without the missing central directory. If the upload is a different archive format or the local records are absent, a ZIP rebuild cannot create the expected entries.
FileFix scans for surviving ZIP local records, decompresses readable stored and DEFLATE members under safety limits, and writes a new central directory. The free recovered-file list describes only the members present in the rebuilt output.
What we can and can't recover
We can usually fix
- Archives that show "unexpected end of archive"
- Archives cut off during a download or copy
- ZIP files with a damaged central directory
- Archives that show the right size but won't open
We can't fix
- Encrypted archives without the correct password
- Multi-part or split archives missing their other parts
- Genuinely empty (0-byte) files
- Files on physically damaged drives (that's hardware data recovery)
How it works
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Upload Drop the file in. It uploads over an encrypted connection. The repair runs automatically — no person looks at your file.
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Free watermarked preview You see exactly what we recovered — the list of files recovered from the archive.
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Pay & download If the summary shows what you need, unlock the repaired ZIP archive from $5 USD.
You see a recovery summary built from your actual file before you decide anything — so you never guess.
See what's recoverable.
Free recovery summary · private & auto-deleted
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Questions
The file may not be a ZIP, may use an unsupported archive format, or may have lost the end record and central directory needed to identify and index its members.
Yes. Local file headers and member streams can remain in the bytes even without the central directory. FileFix scans those records and writes a new directory for readable members.
No. A ZIP rebuild requires surviving ZIP records. If the upload is another archive format, use a tool that supports that format or obtain a fresh ZIP copy.
From $5 USD — and only if the repair works. Seeing what was recovered is free, and checkout is only offered when the engine produces a validated repaired file.