LZMA to ZIP Converter
FileFlip converts LZMA to ZIP entirely inside your browser, using libarchive compiled to WebAssembly. The file is never uploaded to a server: it is read off your disk, converted on your own machine, and saved back by the browser. That means no file-size limit, no queue and no account.
How do I convert an LZMA file to ZIP?#
- Drop your LZMA file onto the converter at the top of this page, or click it to pick one from your computer. You can add as many as you like.
- Leave the target set to ZIP and the conversion starts on its own. FileFlip downloads 1.0 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, then runs libarchive on your own machine.
- Save the ZIP file. Your browser writes it straight to your downloads folder, because there was never a server holding it.
Does converting LZMA to ZIP lose quality?#
No. Converting LZMA to ZIP does not touch the files inside the archive. Each member is read out and written back byte for byte, so only the wrapper around them changes and nothing is recompressed.
Is it safe to convert LZMA files online?#
Yes, because nothing is uploaded. FileFlip converts LZMA files inside the browser tab you already have open, using WebAssembly builds of the same engines a desktop converter would install. Your file is read from your own disk into the page's memory, and no request carrying it is ever made.
You do not have to take that on trust. Open your browser's network panel, run a conversion, and you will see the engine come down and your file go nowhere. There is no upload, no server-side copy, no retention window, and no account tied to what you converted.
How FileFlip works lists every engine, its version and its download size, and shows how to check for yourself that nothing leaves your machine.
What LZMA to ZIP actually does to the file#
Converting LZMA to ZIP runs on libarchive, downloads 1.0 MB of WebAssembly the first time and nothing after that, copies the archived files through unchanged, keeps file contents, and drops file timestamps and file permissions.
| Engine | libarchive |
|---|---|
| Conversion path | 2 steps: LZMA → the unpacked files → ZIP |
| Downloaded to your browser | 1.0 MB, once, then cached by your browser |
| Quality | Lossless, contents copied unchanged |
| You get back | One file |
| Where it runs | On the page's own thread, so a very large file will make the tab wait |
What survives the conversion
| What is in the file | This conversion | Why |
|---|---|---|
| File contents | Kept | Carried through into the converted file. |
| File timestamps | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
| File permissions | Dropped | The target format has nowhere to put it. |
Worth knowing before you start:
- the built-in ZIP and TAR writer records no timestamps, permissions, or ownership
- every entry is extracted into memory before anything is written, so a very large archive can exhaust it
- this conversion runs on the page's own thread, so a large file will freeze the tab while it works
What is an LZMA file?#
An LZMA file is a single stream of data compressed with the raw LZMA algorithm inside its original, minimal container, the format that came before both the 7z and xz formats now built on the same compressor.
An LZMA file mostly turns up when opening something old rather than something worth creating new; xz supersedes it for anything being compressed today.
Convert an LZMA file to xz when it needs an integrity check or has to be re-shared, since xz is the actively maintained format built on the same compressor.
What is a ZIP file?#
A ZIP file is a container introduced by PKWARE in 1989 that holds any number of files and folders, each one compressed and stored as its own separate entry alongside a central directory listing them.
Use ZIP when the archive has to open on any device without the recipient installing anything, or when individual files need to be pulled out rather than the whole archive at once.
Convert away from ZIP when the same files need to be smaller for storage or transfer, since 7z or xz's solid compression usually beats it at the cost of that per-file random access.
LZMA to ZIP questions people ask#
Is LZMA the same compression as 7z uses?
Yes, the LZMA algorithm inside a standalone .lzma file is the same compressor 7-Zip built its 7z format around, and the two share the same decoder. The difference is the container: .lzma is a minimal raw wrapper, while .7z is a full archive format that can hold multiple compressed files with checksums and encryption.
How do I open an LZMA file?
7-Zip on Windows and its Linux and macOS port, p7zip, both extract .lzma files directly. On Linux, the xz-utils package also installs an unlzma command specifically for this legacy format.
What's the difference between LZMA and XZ files?
An LZMA file uses the original .lzma container: just a properties byte and dictionary size in front of the compressed stream, with no integrity check. XZ wraps the same LZMA2 compression in a newer container that adds checksums and multi-stream support, which is why xz replaced .lzma as the default years ago.
Why can I open one file from a ZIP without extracting the whole thing?
A ZIP archive compresses each file inside it separately and lists them in a central directory at the end, so a tool can jump straight to one entry and decompress only that file. Formats like TAR.GZ compress everything as one continuous stream and don't have this shortcut.