How to send a zip file

Updated 2026-09-15 · 4 min read

Someone asked you for the files. So you zipped them up. And now the other end of that decision: most people, on most devices, cannot open a zip.

On a phone there is usually no unzip program at all — the file lands in Downloads and just sits there. On a locked-down work laptop, .zip attachments are sometimes stripped before the mail even arrives, because that is exactly how malware travels.

The short answer

A zip is a container, not a document. The fix is not a better zip — it is not making the other person deal with the container: put its contents at a URL and send a link. If you still want to send the zip itself, send it to something that opens it for the recipient.

Four ways to do it

1. Send the zip as an attachment

The default, and the one that puts all the work on the recipient: download, find an unzip tool, unzip, work out which of the twelve files they were supposed to look at. Every step is a place they give up.

2. Put the zip in a cloud drive and share the link

Better, but it turns into an account problem: many services want the recipient to sign in before they can download, and shared-folder links are the classic source of "it says I need permission". The recipient still downloads a zip and still has to unzip it.

3. Rename it, or split it, or attach it as .txt

The workarounds people invent when a mail filter eats the attachment. They mostly fail: corporate scanners catch renamed archives too, and instructions like "rename it back to .zip after saving" lose half the recipients.

4. Drop the zip on a page and send the link

This is what Plopino does. The server unpacks the zip for you — the recipient never sees an archive:

• If the zip has an index.html at its root, that page becomes the link: a site, with its CSS, images and scripts working, structure preserved.
• If it is just files, you get a browsable listing — a page with the file tree and a collapsible navigation panel, instead of a download.

1. Open plopino.com
2. Drag the .zip onto the page — or click Choose file
3. Copy the link that appears and send it

If you already have the folder on your machine, drag the folder itself instead — same result, one step fewer.

Questions people actually ask

Do I need an account?

Not for the basic flow. Without an account the page is public and kept for a month, and the link is shown once — save it, because nobody can recover it for you. If you sign in, the page belongs to your account: you can make it private, rename it, and update the content later while the link stays the same.

Does the recipient get the zip, or the files?

The files, already unpacked and laid out as a page — the archive itself is not kept, only its contents. Individual files can be downloaded from the page. There is no "download everything as a zip" button, so keep your local copy if you might need the archive back.

What are the size limits?

5 MB per upload without an account, 50 MB when signed in. The limit applies to the zip you upload — and since the contents are what get stored, a highly compressed archive of many small files is fine, while a zip holding one large video is not a good fit.

Is it safe to upload a zip somewhere?

A fair question, given that zips are a malware delivery mechanism. Two things worth knowing here: the archive is unpacked on the server and served as individual files, so nothing about it runs on the recipient's machine by opening the link; and paths inside the archive that try to escape the destination directory are rejected outright. Still: do not put anything in a zip you would not want to be public unless you sign in and set the board private.

How long does the link last?

Anonymous uploads are kept for a month. If you sign in, the board is kept until you delete it, and you can also set an expiry if you want one to disappear on its own.