Total Commander

On my old phone I used Android 4.0.3 with Total Commander 2.72. With this version of TC I could open archive files (zip files) as folders, even though they didn't have the .zip but a random file extension.

On my new phone with Android 9 I installed Total Commander 3.0, but unfortunately I cannot open these files anymore. First I have to add the file extension .zip to the files, only them I'm able to open it, afterwards I have to rename it to it's original name again. Trying to open the file via "open as" only shows the option video, picture, music etc., but not archive. Trying "open with" and then selecting TC doesn't work as well.

Could you please bring back the behaviour of the old Total Commander? Thank you!

Besides this: I really like the new design of TC 3.0 better Thank you for this great software!

Are you sure that you used this with Total Commander for Android? To my knowledge it never worked.

TC4A already shows "Open as ZIP" for *.apk files.
What about a possibility to add this context menu item to extenstions defined by user in Internal Associations (in a same way as TC allows to add "Play in foreground" there)?
And since now TC supports more archive formats, maybe it could be "Open as archive" then?

ghisler(Author) wrote: ↑2020-08-31, 13:47 UTC Are you sure that you used this with Total Commander for Android? To my knowledge it never worked.

Yes, I'm sure! I even just dug out my old phone and made some screenshots.

Bild "screenshot_2020-08-3167jdg.png" anzeigen.
Bild "screenshot_2020-08-31hxj9p.png" anzeigen.
Bild "screenshot_2020-08-31rgj6s.png" anzeigen.

I have analyzed it now: TC 3.x tries as many ways as possible to find apps which can open a certain extension. TC 2.7x instead gave up more quickly, and when no association was found, tried to open the file as an archive.

But there is a solution for TC 3.x too: You need to define an internal association via main menu - Configure - Internal associations,
and associate it with Total Commander itself. Make sure to choose the correct activity named
.TotalCommander
and not the editor, media player, or file browser.

I just tried it and it works indeed, however I need to know the file extension of zip files and then have to add all of them. I tried adding the file extension "*" and ".*" to cover all possible extensions, but it did not work as intended.

In the upcoming beta 9, I have added a few improvements:
1. When you click on such a file with no file associations, TC will not show the popup menu with open, edit etc, and also with "Open as ZIP" if the file is recognized as a ZIP file.
2. "Open as ZIP" will also be shown in the context menu

Thank you for the quick fix! I just downloaded the beta and it works as intended.
Thanks again!