According to industry statistics, Gmail is the most popular email technology platform in countries around the world. With more than 1.8 billion active users worldwide, around 27% of emails are opened in a Gmail inbox.
One of the basic features of Gmail is the ability to send files and folders as attachments. However, there’s a lot more to using Gmail’s file attachment dialog than just clicking the paperclip icon and hitting send.
Reading: How to create a zip file to gmail
For example:
- How big can a file/folder you can send?
- How big can a file the person be who you send an email to?
- What happens if the file is too big?
- What types of files can you attach?
In this article, I’ll answer these questions and more as we outline the process of sending Zip files in Gmail and how a solution like WinZip® Enterprise can help resolve issues like attachment size limits or attachment blocking bypass.
Why you may need to send ZIP files through Gmail
Gmail has a 25 MB (megabyte) file limit for attachments. This means that no single attachment can be larger than 25MB, and if you have multiple attachments, they can’t exceed the 25MB limit.
Most audio, video, and large PDF documents will these do be too large to attach to a message sent via Gmail. To complicate matters, attachments are encrypted, which also slightly increases file size.
Attachments that exceed 25MB are automatically saved to Google Drive, and your email will include an embedded link to the File location in Google Drive. However, this option can cause problems for the recipient, e.g. B. Administrator-level restrictions on who can share and access which files.
Zipping a file can reduce the file size of your attachment so Gmail doesn’t redirect it to Google Drive for the recipient to track. You also don’t have to bother adding recipients to your Google Drive folder to ensure they have the correct permissions to retrieve and open. Your Gmail recipient can quickly and securely download your ZIP files directly from your email.
Zip compression format is used to reduce the overall file size without sacrificing the original data quality. A zip file can contain one or more compressed files, which allows them to be transferred at higher speeds while reducing storage space requirements.
On average, 28% of work time is spent on email. Most professionals send at least 40 emails a day. Whenever the sender or the recipient has to leave their email platform to edit a file/attachment, productivity is hampered even more.
This productivity loss becomes even more apparent when you multiply it by the number of employees in a company. (For example, 1,000 employees equals 40,000 emails per day.)
What is a ZIP file and how does compression work?
Zip is a Archive Format This makes it easier and faster to send (and store) large files or groups of files by compressing them. The process of compressing and storing a collection of data types into a single file thus creates an archive file.
Zip files are trusted, convenient, and a truly unique file type as they can be composed of hundreds of different types of file extensions . You are not limited to any particular data type and each file is compressed individually.
There are two ways to compress files: lossy and lossless. Zip files are lossless. That means if you compress them and then uncompress them, there is no degradation of the data. The data is recovered in the same state it was in when it was originally compressed.
How can a zip file do that? Each byte of data in a file is not unique. In fact, much of it is superfluous. Depending on the file type, algorithms can eliminate some of this redundancy. For example:
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Text files, text database files and images in BMP format can be compressed by 90% or more.
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Audio files such as MP3s can be compressed by 15-20% without affecting the sound quality.
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Image files such as JPEGs 20-25% can be compressed without compromising photo quality or data integrity.
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Program files can be compressed by 50%.
Instead of many representations of the same amount of data, you can only have one. For example, lossless file compression is like taking this data string, AAABBBBBCC, and compressing its redundancies down to this smaller data string, A3B5C2.
It’s the same data, but it’s been optimized to take up less space. The numbers correspond to the number of repetitions of the previous letter. This way, when you decompress (unzip/open/extract) your file, it will contain instructions on how to return it to its original state – without data loss. That’s why it’s called “lossless”.
By compressing email attachments into a zip file, you can:
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Send more files/ Folders with a wide range of data types.
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Avoid creating and sending multiple additional emails.
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Upload your files faster and give your email recipients a faster download, reducing the risk of server timing out when the sender or recipient is running on low bandwidth.
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Stop wasting time finding workarounds for recipients whose email platform attachment size limit is even lower than Gmail’s 25MB.
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Save disk space (and therefore money) for you, your organization and your message recipient.
How to send ZIP files in Gmail
Zip files can be sent through Gmail in a number of ways, including using solutions such as WinZip Enterprise or the one in your device built-in features.
Method 1: On a Windows PC
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On your PC, browse to the files you are sending want to find, e.g. B. on your desktop, documents folder or cloud storage.
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Select the file(s) you want to compress, click with Right-click and choose Compress to Zip File from the menu that appears. This will create a ZIP file in the same location as your selected documents.
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Rename the ZIP file if necessary, then navigate to your gmail account account.
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Click the Compose button to create a new email.
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Enter the recipient’s email address, a subject line, and any content you want to include in the email message .
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Click on the paperclip icon in the bottom ribbon of your email and then navigate to the location of the ZIP file on your PC.
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Double click on the zip file name to attach it to your email.
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Click Send to transfer. the zip file as a standard email attachment.
Method two: Within the WinZip Enterprise platform
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Open WinZip Enterprise.
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Browse and select the file(s) and/or folder(s) you want to zip would like. These files can be stored on your PC, network, or in the cloud, depending on your storage options and available solutions.
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In the Files section, click click the Add to Zip button.
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In the Actions pane, click Save As.
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Choose the destination for your file, give it a name and click Save.
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Compose the email message in Gmail. Then click the paper clip icon and select Attach Files.
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Browse to the file destination and select the ZIP file.
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Repeat the process of attaching files to add more files, if necessary.
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Send the zip file as a regular attachment.
How WinZip Enterprise improves and simplifies sending ZIP files
While you compress files at any time and directly from your Device Folder Window WinZip Enterprise improves data security with file-level encryption and password protection. This process is essential when sharing sensitive data such as internal resources, confidential information and any data subject to legal and regulatory requirements.
WinZip Enterprise also helps businesses avoid file blocking issues when sending emails with file attachments. Gmail blocks messages that can spread viruses, especially messages that contain executable files, certain links, or certain file extensions.
If you see “This message has been blocked because its content poses a potential security issue”, your attachment probably contains an illegal file type. Blocked formats in Gmail include (but are not limited to) the following:
- .ade
- .appx
- .cmd
- .dmg
- .exe
- .iso
- .msp
- .nsh
- . rar
- .sys
- .vbs
- .wsc
Even if you have taken steps to convert files into a ZIP file to compress file, Gmail will block the attachment if it detects an illegal file format in the archive file. WinZip Enterprise gives you options for navigating through file blocking, such as: B. Configuring file extension options with WinZip Courier. To do this, you can change the attachment options and use custom file extensions, e.g. E.g. change a .zip file to .zea for “zipped email attachment”.
Now that you understand how to create and send ZIP files via Gmail and how solutions like WinZip Enterprise can simplify the process, it’s time to experience it for yourself.
Learn how to use WinZip Enterprise to quickly and easily send ZIP files in Gmail.
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