"Cannot open file as archive" — how to recover the files inside.
7-Zip showed "Cannot open file as archive." because it could not find a usable archive index in the file. FileFix scans the local records that survived, rebuilds a fresh ZIP directory, and shows the recovered file list before you decide. A one-time $5 — and only if the repair works.
Free preview — pay only if you download ($5)
Your files auto-delete within 48 hours
No person looks at your file as part of repair
Uploading your file.
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Recovering what we can.
Analyzing your file...
Here's what we recovered.
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Repair your file
Choose a supported file to see what can be repaired before checkout.
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Download repaired fileYou preview before you pay. If the download is materially worse than the preview you approved, we'll refund you.
Good news — your file isn't damaged. No charge.
There's nothing to repair. If it still looks broken, the issue may be the player, codec, or viewer on your device rather than the file itself.
We couldn't recover this one.
The file is too damaged to rebuild, so there is nothing to preview and no charge. You can try another file.
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.
FileFix can't fix that kind of file yet.
Right now we repair video, audio, and document files (MP4, MOV, M4V, MKV, AVI, TS, MTS, M2TS, MPG, MPEG, VOB, 3GP, WebM, M4A, WAV, MP3, AAC, FLAC, OGG, AIFF, XLSX, DOCX, ZIP, and PDF). We're adding support for more formats over time.
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Why this happens
Archive tools normally start from the end-of-central-directory record and the central directory that indexes every member. When that tail is missing or inconsistent — common after an interrupted download or copy — 7-Zip reports that it cannot open the file as an archive even though earlier member data may be intact.
The message describes an index failure, not necessarily damaged contents. Individual members stored before the damage often remain readable; the archive simply lacks the directory a tool needs to locate them.
FileFix does not depend on the old central directory. It scans forward for local file headers, decompresses readable stored and DEFLATE members under safety limits, and writes a new ZIP with a rebuilt directory. The summary lists the entries recovered from the uploaded bytes rather than assuming the original archive was complete.
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
- 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
- Upload. Drop the file in. It uploads over an encrypted connection.
- We rebuild it. The repair runs automatically — no person looks at your file.
- Read the summary, then decide. You see exactly what we recovered — the list of files recovered from the archive. If the summary shows what you need, unlock the repaired ZIP archive for a one-time $5.
You see a recovery summary built from your actual file before you decide anything — so you never guess.
Upload your archive
Free recovery summary · files auto-delete within 48 hours
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Questions
Why can 7-Zip not open it when the file clearly has a size?
Size alone does not make an archive readable. If the central directory at the end is missing or damaged, the tool has no index to locate members and stops, even though member data may still exist earlier in the file.
Will every file inside come back?
Only the members whose local records survived in the uploaded bytes are rebuilt. A member that crossed the damaged region may be partial, and the free file list shows exactly what the new archive contains before checkout.
Should I try downloading the archive again first?
Yes, if the source is still available. A complete re-download is always preferable because repair cannot supply bytes that never arrived; use FileFix when a clean copy is not obtainable.