Fix “Unexpected end of archive” RAR/ZIP message

A .zip or .rar file is a file that stores and compresses one or more other files. Recently, I tried downloading albums from my Flickr account, but I often received the same error message when opening the .zip file: “Unexpceted end of archive“. Very frustrating; the message was still there even after redownloading that zip file.

Unexpected_end_of_archive_winrar

There is, however, a solution. This will explain the solution when using WinRar, but it should also work in other popular file archive programs. Also, this error message can appear on various archive filetypes, including .rar, .zip, .tar, .tar.gz

  • Just close that error dialogue first.
  • Then, in the top menu go to ‘tools‘ and choose ‘repair archive‘. (Or use Alt + R)

You will then be asked in what folder the repaired archive should be saved. Choose a folder. The archive type should be the same as the file extension of the original file (so if it is a .zip file, choose ZIP and for a .rar. choose Rar). Click OK.

repairing_dialogue_winrar

Now wait until the process finishes. If everything goes well, your RAR or ZIP file should be repaired and the error message should no longer appear when opening your archive file!

Your repaired file can be found on the location you choose earlier and the name should be rebuilt.originalname.zip/.rar.

 

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35 thoughts on “Fix “Unexpected end of archive” RAR/ZIP message

  1. I have got two errors, how can I fix it?
    C:\Users\Admin\Downloads\[File Name].zip: Checksum error in
    C:\Users\Admin\Downloads\[File in the zipped folder]. The file is corrupt
    C:\Users\Admin\Downloads\[File Name].zip: The archive is corrupt

  2. Didn’t work.

    But I was able to get the contents of the .rar file easily by “drag” and “Drop” the files outside the compressed file.

  3. Also had thins problem and the above solution did not work. . What really did, and I have seen this before, is to use 7ZIP as the unzipper not WinRAR or WinZip… Worked on both the ZIPs I had downloaded in a set of 6, the other 4 worked ok without 7ZIP.. so not sure what happened with these two, re-downloading the faulty ones didn#t work either

    A

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