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I am using Outlook and I received an email containing a compressed .zip file. When I download and try to extract its contents, the names of all the files and folders contained inside the compressed .zip are changed to characters I can not read:

WinRAR screenshot 1

WinRAR screenshot 2

WinRAR screenshot 3

This issue appeared in my Windows 10 system but a colleague with Windows 11 also has the same issue. However, other colleagues (with either Windows 10 or 11) open the compressed .zip file and do not face the same issue (both from the original sender as well as when I forwarded them the email that I received).

It is worth mentioning that the Greek language is used for the email subject and body text as well as for the .zip file name and the rest of the file and folder names. This may be relevant because the numbers and some English words within the folder and file names appear to stay the same.

I tried to extract the contents with different tools (7zip and WinRAR) without success. Also when I forwarded the email to my gmail account and tried to see its contents on the browser, every file and folder appeared as "Unknown":

gmail screenshot

I tried to post this question to the Microsoft Community forum but I couldn't upload any screenshot by any browser, PC or MS account I have access to (could be related to this issue).

I am using Microsoft Office LTSC Professional Plus 2021 and my system information are:

Edition Windows 10 Pro Version 22H2 Installed on ‎4/‎7/‎2023 OS build 19045.4291 Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 1000.19056.1000.0

Thank you

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    What is your question? I don't see a question here. This is a question-and-answer site, so we require you to articulate a specific question. Normally, a question ends with a "?". Please don't force us to guess what your question might be.
    – D.W.
    Commented May 2 at 5:35

3 Answers 3

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The issue is likely caused by the filenames in the zip file being stored in a character encoding that doesn't match the default encoding used by your Windows setup.

In WinRAR, under "Options->Name Encoding" you need to tell it the character encoding that was used. Greek is included in that list.

enter image description here

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pmqs thank you for the information but altering the Name encoding setting of WinRAR from the default to the available Greek option altered the file/folder names but they remained incomprehensible.

However, I did searched for a way to change the default encoding used by my Windows setup and I solved the issue! Here are the steps I took:

Settings -> Language -> Add a language (select Greek) -> from Greek go to Options and install Language pack and Handwriting

Then from Start Menu -> Region settings -> Additional date, time & regional settings -> Region -> Administrative -> Change system locale -> and select Greek (Greece)

It will ask for a Restart and then the extracted folders and files had the anticipated names. Thanks again for the assistance!

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    @pmqs was right that the issue has to do with encoding, but that target encoding has to be supported by the OS itself - as you have figured out. Good job! Also kudos for leaving a detailed answer!
    – Astrogator
    Commented May 1 at 17:37
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One possible cause could be related to the email client used to send the file. For example, there have been reports of this issue occurring when files are sent from Thunderbird to Outlook. The filenames of attachments containing special characters can become unreadable in certain versions of Outlook. https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/unreadable-attachment-file-name-and-or-dat/91963b3b-b6fc-48e2-a2b5-24f3d38a4e3e

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