Tips and Magic Tricks

Things that make you go “Hmmm… that’s good to know.”

How to Split a ZIP File

Austin Written by Austin
... on a stunning September day.


📖 In This Article

What’s a ZIP file?
Software We Used
You shall not Pass(word)… please…
Splitting a ZIP File on Windows
Splitting a ZIP File on Mac OSX


If you are migrating your data to Nookal, along with a collection of Documents that exceeds 3GB (when compressed in a ZIP file), you will need to split the ZIP file into multiple parts.

Our data storage service has a file size limit of 3GB (gigabytes), so we’re going to show you how you can split a 8GB file into smaller parts to be transferred inside that limit.

🗄️ What’s a ZIP file?

A ZIP file is a collection of computer files and folders that has been compressed (a.k.a “zipped”) so they use less space on your hard drive – and are faster to transfer.

The compressed files are stored within a single ‘archive‘ file that commonly has a ‘zip‘ filename extension – however, different compression types use different extensions.

When we ‘split’ a ZIP file, it is cut into smaller pieces – for example:

  • If we split 📁 documents.zip (8GB), into 3GB segments we’ll get:
    1. 📁 documents.zip.01 (3GB)
    2. 📁 documents.zip.02 (3GB)
    3. 📁 documents.zip.03 (2GB)

You can then transfer those 3 files to us, and we can glue them back together to process your Documents within the ZIP file.

Just remember – we will need all the smaller pieces. Otherwise we can’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again…

💿 Software We Used

Although these concepts can be applied to other archiving software, these instructions are written for:

  • 7-Zip (Windows – Open Source)
  • Keka (Mac OSX – Free)

At the time of writing, both are available for free – please consider supporting their development if it’s right for you.

🧙 You shall not Pass(word)… please…

Please ensure you don’t set a password on any files you transfer to us. Thank you. 🙏

🪟 Splitting a ZIP File on Windows

With 7-Zip installed…

1

Locate and right-click your Documents folder, then select 7-ZIP > Add to archive…

2

Select the 7z Archive Format, type “3000MB” in the Split field, and click OK.

3

When processing has finished, you’ll find the ZIP file segments next to your Documents folder – ready to transfer!

🍏 Splitting a ZIP File on Mac OSX

With Keka installed…

1

Locate your Documents folder.

2

Open the Keka application.

3

Select 7z Compression, and type “3GB” in the Split field.

4

Drag-and-drop your Documents folder into the Keka window.

5

When processing has finished, you’ll find the ZIP file segments next to your Documents folder – ready to transfer!

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