Guide
Remove a password from a ZIP file
You know the password and simply want an unprotected copy of your own archive. Here is how to strip the encryption in the tools you already have, and how that differs from recovering a password you have lost.
Authorized use only
Use this tool only on ZIP archives you own or are authorized to access. Attempting to open files without permission may violate applicable laws. See our Acceptable Use Policy and Terms of Use.
Recovery and removal are two different jobs
It is worth separating two situations that sound alike but are not. If you have the password to your ZIP and want to save an unprotected copy, that is removal, and it is straightforward. You open the archive with the key you already have and re-save the contents without encryption. This whole page is about that case.
The other situation is that you cannot remember the password at all. You cannot remove protection you cannot get past, because every tool still needs the correct key to read the files first. That job is recovery, not removal, and it works by testing candidate passwords until one matches. If that is really your situation, skip ahead to the recover your ZIP password in the browser section below. For everyone who does know their password, read on.
How to remove the password in common tools
There is a detail worth stating plainly first. No mainstream tool has a button that deletes a password from an existing encrypted ZIP in place. What every method below actually does is extract the files using your password and then create a fresh archive with no password set. The old protected file stays as it was; you end up with a new, unencrypted copy beside it. Once you understand that, the steps are simple in any tool.
- 7-Zip (Windows). Right-click the ZIP, choose 7-Zip, then Extract Here, and enter your password when prompted. Now select the extracted files, right-click, choose 7-Zip, then Add to archive, pick ZIP as the format, and leave the encryption password blank. The new archive has no password.
- Windows File Explorer (ZipCrypto archives). Double-click the ZIP, enter the password, and copy the files out to a normal folder. Then select those files, right-click, and choose Compress to ZIP file (or Send to, then Compressed folder). Explorer never asks for a password on the new archive, so it is created unprotected. Explorer cannot open a WinZip AES archive even with the right password, so for AES use 7-Zip as above.
- macOS (ZipCrypto archives). Double-click the ZIP in Finder and enter the password so the contents unpack into a folder. Select the extracted items, right-click, and choose Compress. The Archive Utility produces a plain ZIP with no encryption. The original protected file is left untouched. The built-in macOS tools work with ZipCrypto rather than WinZip AES, so for an AES archive extract the files with Keka or The Unarchiver first, then compress them the same way.
Whichever tool you use, the pattern is the same: unlock with the password you have, then re-zip without one. Because the second archive is built fresh, it carries none of the original encryption forward.
"Removing" a password really means re-archiving
You are not editing the encrypted file. You are extracting its contents with the correct key and packing them into a new ZIP that has no password. Keep or delete the original as you prefer, but know that they are two separate files.
A quick safety note before you strip protection
Once the password is gone, the new ZIP is readable by anyone who gets a copy of it. That is the whole point of removal, but it is easy to forget in the moment. Before you strip the encryption, ask where this file is going to live. On a shared drive, in an email, or in cloud storage, an unprotected archive of anything personal is a small leak waiting to happen.
If the contents are sensitive and you only want to drop the password temporarily, plan to re-protect the archive afterward. Modern AES encryption on a fresh ZIP is quick to set up and far stronger than the legacy scheme. It has one cost: File Explorer on Windows and the tools built into macOS cannot open a WinZip AES archive, so anyone you send it to needs an app such as 7-Zip, Keka or The Unarchiver. The how to password-protect a ZIP file page walks through doing it properly with AES rather than the weak default.
Forgot the password instead?
If you reached this page hoping to remove a password you no longer remember, the honest answer is that removal is not the right tool. Encryption does not store your password inside the file, so there is nothing to delete and no bypass to apply. What you can do is recover the password you originally set, then use the steps above to save an unprotected copy if you still want one.
Recovery works by testing candidate passwords against the archive until one matches, and it does best when you can describe part of what you chose. You can recover your ZIP password in the browser with nothing to install and nothing to upload, since the file is read and tested entirely on your own device. For the full picture of what that situation allows and where it stalls, the opening a password-protected ZIP without the password page lays out the realistic paths and their limits.
One last thing, said plainly. Remove or recover passwords only on archives you own or are clearly authorized to open. The goal here is to help you manage your own files, and anything you load into ZipRecover stays on your device.
Common questions
Do I need the current password to remove it from a ZIP?
Yes. Removing protection means opening the archive with the correct password and then saving the contents into a new, unencrypted ZIP. There is no way to strip encryption without first supplying the key. If you have lost the password, that is a different job called recovery; see recover your ZIP password in the browser.
Does removing the password change the files inside?
No. Extracting and re-zipping copies your files exactly as they were. Only the encryption layer is dropped. The result is an ordinary ZIP that any program can open with no prompt, holding the same documents, images, or folders as before.
Is it safe to keep an unprotected ZIP?
It depends on what is inside and where it lives. An unencrypted ZIP can be read by anyone who gets the file, so it is fine for harmless content but risky for anything private. If the archive holds sensitive material, re-protect it with AES rather than leaving it open; see how to password-protect a ZIP file.
Can a tool remove the password if I forgot it?
Not directly. Nothing peels protection off a properly encrypted archive without the key. What you can do is recover the password you originally set by testing candidates locally, then open the file and re-save it unencrypted. Start with opening a ZIP without the password.
Ready to recover your ZIP password?
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