Can't add a file to an existing zip folder

I'm sure I used to do this all the time, but now it isn't working (Windows 10 and 11)

I'm trying to drag a .pdf to an existing zip folder but getting a circle with a /. See the sample below:

Help!

If that's not working for you, an EASY solution is to unzip (extract) the contents of the current .zip to an empty folder, then add your new .pdf to the extracted contents and zip the whole lot (with a new name, perhaps). Unzipping .zip files just takes a second, and zipping a new set of files takes only another second. You can use the right-click context menu item "Send to" and choose Compressed (zipped) folder.

I just tried to drag and drop a .pdf to a zipped set of .pdf files in a .zip folder, and it didn't work for me, either.

I just zipped two .pdf files to a zipped folder, parked a new .pdf file in the folder the zipped folder was in, then right-clicked on the new file and dragged it over the zipped folder. A pop-up said "Copy here." clicked that and it succeeded. When I opened the zipped folder, it now contained three .pdf files. Try it. Might work for you.

Wisewiz said:

I just tried to drag and drop a .pdf to a zipped set of .pdf files in a .zip folder, and it didn't work for me, either.

Click to expand...

I did that too, with a few (in total 10 older and newer) pdfs and it does function without problems.
I used rather small files for that. Even could add a password-protected pdf.
So it must be something in the pdf-file(s) (size?) or some system-problem that's blocking addition of another file.

I am using Windows 11 Pro 23H2 22631.3593

PS. I even did (as in the printed view) add a .zip to the zip file, containing two pdf's. No problem!

@Kees

Thanks. See my edit of post #2.

(I used fairly small .pdfs, too.)

I did both:
Opening the zipped file and dragging a pdf (or even a zipped file) to that from another File explorer window or dragging it to the file having a .zip extension and dropping it there. Both are functioning.

JeffLeites said:

I'm sure I used to do this all the time, but now it isn't working (Windows 10 and 11)

I'm trying to drag a .pdf to an existing zip folder but getting a circle with a /. See the sample below:

Help! View attachment 98333

Click to expand...

It looks like it is in a cloud storage folder (OneDrive, maybe?) and not actually there on your drive - that little green icon at the bottom left of the .ZIP file icon (and all the other files) seems like it might be from a cloud storage utility.

Try to copy both files to another directory that is not inside whatever folder it is now and see if you can then do it. If so, it is because whatever cloud it is in seems to have removed the local copy to save space, and thus you can't directly perform the action until the file is located back on the local drive again.

If you can give us an idea of what cloud it is (DropBox, Onedrive), etc., we can give you ideas on how to make the file(s) always be on the local drive, whether it is for the few that you need or all the files all the time.

Thanks for the replies. It turned out to be a problem with the existing .zip folder... maybe the current way of compressing is incompatible with the way I last did it.

My fix is to create a new .zip with with the files I want to add (compress) using the Send To option, copy the older files from the older zip file into a Temp folder (unzipping them), then drag those files (as a group) from the Temp folder to the new .zip folder.

That works as it should , but it's going to take some time because I have A LOT of old .zip folders to replace.

It looks like it is in a cloud storage folder (OneDrive, maybe?) and not actually there on your drive - that little green icon at the bottom left of the .ZIP file icon (and all the other files) seems like it might be from a cloud storage utility.

Click to expand...

Johngalt - The green dot is a Carbonite backup status indicator.

Glad you figured out it was the .ZIP files themselves.