StudioZip:FAQ

Opening archives

Clicking an archive still shows the "binary file" message.

Check that the file extension is in the list on Supported Formats. If another extension or workbench.editorAssociations assigns a different editor, right-click the file, choose Open With… and pick Studio ZIP. In that menu you can also make it the default.

A .docx or .xlsx does not open in Studio ZIP.

These Office types are not registered for the Studio ZIP tab. Studio ZIP only opens them when they are inside another archive. See Supported Formats.

Clicking an .asar file does nothing useful.

VS Code treats .asar files as folders. Run Studio ZIP: Mount Archive as Workspace Folder from the Command Palette and choose the file there.

The tab shows Not a recognised archive: <name>.

Neither the first bytes nor the file extension match a known format. The file may be damaged or of a format Studio ZIP does not support.

A file with the wrong extension opens as the wrong format.

With studioZip.detection.useMagicBytes turned on (the default), the signature of the file decides, not the extension. If you turned it off, only the extension counts. See Settings.

A ZIP opens, but one file shows an error such as "unsupported compression method".

Studio ZIP reads ZIP entries that are stored or compressed with deflate. Entries that use other methods, for example LZMA or bzip2 inside a ZIP, cannot be read.

Preview

The preview shows Binary file for a text file.

Text is only detected if the file is valid UTF-8 and has no zero bytes in its first 8 KB. Files in other encodings, such as UTF-16 or Latin-1 with special characters, count as binary. Open them with Open in editor to let VS Code pick the encoding.

The preview asks me to click Show anyway.

The file is larger than studioZip.preview.maxFileSizeBytes. Click the button, or raise or turn off the limit. See Large files.

Encrypted files show This entry is encrypted.

The preview does not read encrypted files. Use Open in editor or Extract… and enter the password.

Editing

I cannot save a file from a .tar.gz, .7z or .deb.

Only the ZIP family can be written. Files from other formats open read-only. See Which archives can be written.

Saving fails in a ZIP with encrypted files.

Saving rewrites every file in the archive, and encrypted files cannot be rewritten. Archives with encrypted entries are therefore read-only in practice.

I saved a change, but the Studio ZIP tab still shows the old content.

The tab loads the file list once when it opens. Close the tab and open the archive again.

I changed the archive with another program, but VS Code still shows the old content.

Studio ZIP keeps an archive open while a tab, an editor or a mounted folder uses it, and for about one minute after the last use. Changes made by other programs during that time are not picked up. Close all Studio ZIP tabs and editors of that archive, unmount it, wait a minute and open it again.

Saving a large archive is slow.

ZIP cannot change a file in place, so every save writes the whole archive again. The time grows with the size of the archive, not with the size of your change.

Where do the .studio-zip-….tmp files come from?

Studio ZIP writes the new archive to such a file next to the original and then puts it in place. Normally the file is gone when the save is finished. A file left over after a crash can be deleted.

Passwords

Is my archive password saved?

No. It is kept in memory for the current VS Code window only. Reload the window to forget it.

I entered a wrong password.

Reading fails with Wrong password. The next attempt to read an encrypted file asks again.

Can Studio ZIP open password protected 7z or RAR archives?

No. Their entries are listed, but the content cannot be read.

Other

Does Studio ZIP need an internet connection?

No. All decoders, the text editor and the PDF viewer are bundled with the extension.

Can I search inside a mounted archive?

Studio ZIP provides no search for its file system, so Search (Ctrl+Shift+F) does not find text in mounted archives. Open the file and use Ctrl+F in the editor instead.