If you are using the latest Gmail app on your Android phone, you will know that it comes with one limitation: it doesn’t allow you to download and view zip attachment.
For emails with any other form of attachment, such as image files, word documents etc, you can easily view/save them to your phone. However, if the attachment is a zip file, you will see a “Info” button and when pressed, show this message: “Can’t save or open this type of attachment because it could contain malicious software.” Not so helpful, right?
Google has completely blocked the downloading of zip attachment from the Gmail app. To overcome this, we have to resort to use another mail app for this feature.
There are many mail apps in the Play Store, but the one I use and love is K-9 Mail. It is free, very responsive, work well with Gmail and yes, it allows you to download zip attachment.
1. Install K-9 Mail from Play Store.
2. Setup and connect to your Gmail account. You just have to enter your Gmail’s username and password and it will configure itself. Once it is connected to your account, it will start to sync your phone with the online server.
3. Lastly, you can proceed to download the zip attachment from the mail.
For me, as I still prefer to use the native Gmail app than K-9 Mail, I have set K-9 Mail to disable the auto-sync and notification. This will prevent the same email from syncing twice in two different email clients.
Conclusion
Until Google fixes this issue for their Gmail app, this is the solution that I am using for both my Android phone and tablet.
What about you? How do you download zip attachment from Gmail in Android?
Damien Oh started writing tech articles since 2007 and has over 10 years of experience in the tech industry. He is proficient in Windows, Linux, Mac, Android and iOS, and worked as a part time WordPress Developer. He is currently the owner and Editor-in-Chief of Make Tech Easier.
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