How to edit a ZIP file
- Drop a ZIP onto the drop zone above, or click to choose one. If it is encrypted, enter Password (only if the archive is encrypted).
- Click Open ZIP. Every file appears as a row with a checkbox, an editable path box and its size.
- Make your changes:
- To rename a file, edit the name at the end of its path.
- To move a file into a folder, type the folder name followed by a slash, for example
reports/2026/summary.pdf. - To delete a file, untick its checkbox. The path is struck through and the file is left out of the new archive.
- To add files, click Add files. New files appear at the bottom of the list, where you can edit their paths too.
- Click Save ZIP. The result is named after the original with
-edited.zipat the end, for examplephotos-edited.zip.
All editing happens in your browser. The ZIP and its contents are not uploaded, and the original file on your disk is not changed.
Paths are the folders
Inside a ZIP there are no real folders the way your file manager shows them. Each entry simply has a path such as docs/images/logo.png, and extraction tools create the folders that the slashes describe. That makes restructuring an archive a matter of editing text:
| Goal | Original path | Change it to |
|---|---|---|
| Rename a file | IMG_0412.jpg | beach-sunset.jpg |
| Move into a folder | invoice.pdf | 2026/invoice.pdf |
| Move up to the top level | export/data/report.csv | report.csv |
| Rename a folder | old-name/a.txt, old-name/b.txt | new-name/a.txt, new-name/b.txt |
Renaming a folder therefore means changing the folder part of every path that starts with it. A folder that ends up with no files disappears, because empty folders are not stored. If two rows end with the same path, the second one is saved with " (2)" added rather than overwriting the first.
Why saving creates a new archive
A ZIP stores each file name twice: once in a small header in front of the file's data and once in the central directory at the end of the archive. Changing names safely means rewriting both, so the editor reads the entries you keep and writes a complete new ZIP. Original modification dates are carried over. If the source ZIP was encrypted, the edited copy is encrypted again with the same password using AES-256.
Tips
- Just want to look before changing anything? ZIP Viewer shows sizes, compression ratios and dates.
- To combine the contents of several archives, use Merge ZIP and then tidy the result here.
- To add a password to the edited archive, or change an existing one, run it through Password Protect ZIP.
- Building an archive from scratch is quicker with Create ZIP, which accepts whole folders.
Frequently asked questions
Can I change the text inside a file in the ZIP?
No, the editor works on whole files. Download the file, edit it in its usual application, add the new version with Add files and untick the old one.
Will the edited ZIP still need a password?
Yes. An encrypted original is saved with the same password, now using AES-256 encryption.
Can I add a whole folder?
Add files adds individual files at the top level. Type a folder prefix into each new path to place them in a folder.
Why did a folder vanish after saving?
All the files in it were deleted or moved elsewhere. Empty folders are not kept in the saved archive.