Since iOS 7, Apple devices have had limited support for opening ZIP files in Messages and Mail, while a few other third-party apps provide methods for opening ZIP files. But what if you’re on the other end and want to share multiple files with someone in a zipped file?
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Bundler is a free app that allows you to group files from your iOS device into “bundles” and share each bundle as a ZIP file through AirDrop, iMessages, email, and other cloud services. Maybe you have some photos you took and want to send them to a friend. Or, maybe you need to share a group of documents you have on your phone with a co-worker.
You can add files, media, webpage links, contacts, maps, notes, and items from most apps that allow you to save files locally on your device (as opposed to, or in addition to, cloud storage) to bundles.
As an example, we’ll show you how to add some photos to a bundle, rename and delete the bundle and the files within the bundle, and share the zipped bundle. Before we begin, install Bundler on your iOS device—it’s free.
How to Add Files to a New Bundle
To add files to a new bundle, open the Photos app, and open the album containing the photo(s) you want to add. Then, tap “Select” at the top of the screen.
Then, tap on the photos you want to add to the bundle and tap the “Share” button in the lower-left corner of the screen.
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When you installed Bundler, it was automatically added to the share sheet. If you don’t see the Bundler icon on the share sheet, you can add it. Once you see the Bundler icon on the share sheet, tap on it.
A popup dialog box displays. Since we have not created any bundles yet, a dialog box displays asking us to name a new bundle or just tap “Post” in the upper-right corner of the dialog box. If you tap “Post” without naming a new bundle, Bundler automatically creates a new bundle called “My Bundle” and adds the files to it. We’ll show you how to rename a bundle later.
If you already have at least one bundle, the last bundle you added items to is listed as the Selected Bundle. You can tap “Selected Bundle” to choose a different bundle.
Type a name for your new bundle and the tap “Post” in the upper-right corner of the dialog box.
Repeat this process for any other files you want to add, from whatever apps those files reside in.
How to View, Rename, and Delete Files and Bundles
Once you’ve added files to a bundle, you can view, rename, and delete those files directly in Bundler. Open Bundler by tapping the icon on the Home screen.
We see our bundle with the photos we added to it. All the names on the photos are a bunch of random letters and numbers, so we want to give them better names. To rename any of the photos in the bundle, tap the “i” icon in the upper-right corner of the bundle’s box.
Before renaming a photo, you might want to view it first to check what it is. You can tap on a photo in the bundle to view it directly in Bundler so you can see what the photo is before naming it. To view a photo in Bundler, tap on the file in the bundle.
Click “Done” on the viewing screen to return to the bundle.
Now, to rename a photo file in your bundle, tap the “i” ion on the right side of the photo’s box.
Tap “Rename File” on the File Settings dialog box.
You can also use the dialog box to delete the selected file. When you delete a file, there is no confirmation dialog box, so be sure you want to delete the file. Deleting a file in a bundle does not delete the original file.
NOTE: You cannot have a bundle with no files, so when you delete the last file in a bundle, the bundle is also deleted.
To rename the file, enter a new name in the box. Then, tap the “Rename” button.
To rename or delete a bundle, the procedure is similar. Say we want to rename the bundle to “HTG images” to indicate this bundle is for more than just screenshots. To rename a bundle, make sure the bundle is open and then tap on the gear icon in the upper-right corner of the screen.
Tap “Rename” on the Bundle Settings dialog box.
You can also delete the bundle here by tapping “Delete”. Just like when you delete a file in a bundle, there is no confirmation dialog box when you delete a bundle. So, make sure you want to delete the bundle. Deleting a bundle does not delete the original files you added to the bundle.
Enter a new name for the bundle and tap the “OK” button.
To go back to the main list of bundles, tap “Back” in the upper-left corner of the screen.
How to Share a Bundle as a ZIP File
You can share bundles with others or with yourself, so you can access the files on other devices. You can upload it to a cloud service, attach it to an email, or send it in a text message. You can even add it to the Notes app as an attachment.
We’re going to upload our bundle to OneDrive so we can access it on our PC. Tap the “Share” link in the upper-left corner of the bundle’s box. It might take a bit for the share sheet to display, depending on how many files are in your bundle. Bundler is collecting the files into a .ZIP archive that can be opened on any PC.
Tap “OneDrive” (or your chosen method of sharing) on the share sheet.
To add the bundle to our OneDrive account, we tap “Upload to OneDrive” on the dialog box that displays. We saved it to the root folder, which is the default. However, we could tap on “Files” and select a folder in our account and save it there.
Uploading a bundle to OneDrive (or other cloud service) or emailing the bundle are just a couple of methods available for sharing bundles. There are many other methods on the share sheet you can use to share your bundle and the procedure, once you choose the sharing method, will differ depending on the service or app you choose.
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The resulting ZIP file you shared is a normal .zip file you can extract on any Windows, Mac, or Linux machine using its built-in tools. Once you’ve extracted the files from the .zip file, you can simply open these files in their native apps on your computer. You can also share Bundler files with other iOS devices using AirDrop.
