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Non-English File Names in a Zip File Are Scrambled When Unzipped

Liz Sanderson
Liz Sanderson
  • Updated

Symptom

Non-English file names in a zip file are scrambled when unzipped.


Cause

When a file is zipped in a non-English version of Windows 7 or Windows 8 using the native Windows file compression, the file is not zipped using UTF-8 encoding. This causes a filename scrambling issue when trying to use FME to unzip the file on a different machine in a different locale. This issue is due to an external encoding issue not related to FME, as the file will still be scrambled when trying to unzip it using 7-Zip or Winrar.


Resolution

Due to library limitations, this cannot be fixed in FME. A workaround to this issue is to zip the file on either MacOS, Linux or Windows 10.

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