Large zip files created in OS X cannot be opened in Windows When I compress a large directory in OS X, like 5-6 GB the resulting archive cannot be browsed in Windows / Total Commander. It hangs the app and stays at 100% cpu usage, like its trying to extract it or something. Does anybody know whats causing this? Smaller zips that have like 2-3 GB can be browsed instantly.
The built-in Archive utility on Mac OS X creates invalid Zip files when they are larger than 4 GB. This is still the case on Sierra (10.12.6).

In Windows 10, trying to open such a .zip file in Explorer fails, saying the file is invalid (which is true).

Current versions of Total Commander, 7zip and probably others have workarounds for this particular bug, and should be able to open and uncompress these large files.

Conclusion: do not create large .zip files (over 4GB) with the Mac built-in compressor but use some other tool instead.

For the gory details, see Apple Archive Utility (and ditto) and very large ZIP archives (which is, ironically, only available on archive.org since the original web site has shut down)