Extract files from a ZIP or email attachment

Unpack the contents of a ZIP archive or email's attachments into separate documents in your matter.

First, open the matter and go to the tab. You need edit access to the matter — you must be its Owner or an Editor.

Find files that are ready to extract

In the left panel under Views, select . A file is extractable when it contains embedded files — a .zip archive, or a .msg/.eml email with attachments — and has not yet been extracted; this view shows only those.

Extract the files

1. Select one or more files in the view. You can select multiple files to extract them all at once.
2. In the toolbar, click . It appears as an icon; hover it to see how many of your selected files are eligible — its tooltip reads, for example, Extract ZIP & Attachments (3).
3. BriefTech unpacks the contents and creates a new document for each embedded file, linked to the source file as its parent.

Decide which extraction you want before you run either one. There is a second extract action, Extract Attachments Only, which unpacks only genuine attachments and leaves out images embedded in an email's body — useful when a signature logo or an inline screenshot would otherwise arrive as its own document. Both actions use the file's single extraction, so whichever you run first is the one you get: the other stops appearing for that file, and there is no way to run it afterwards.

Other ways to reach either extract action:

• Right-click the selected file(s) and choose the action from the menu.
• Neither action is limited to the Extractable view — the toolbar buttons and the right-click items appear in any Files-tab view, and on the Review tab. The Extractable view above is simply the easiest way to find the files.
• Both are hidden, not greyed out, when none of the selected files still has embedded contents to unpack.

Extract only the attachments

When the source is an email, a second action unpacks only its genuine attachments and leaves out images embedded in the message body — a signature logo, an inline screenshot, or a tracking pixel that would otherwise each arrive as its own document.

1. Select one or more eligible files in the view.
2. In the toolbar, click . It appears as an icon; hover it to see its name, Extract Attachments Only, followed by a count of how many of your selected files are eligible.
3. BriefTech creates a new document for each attachment, linked to the source file as its parent. Images embedded in an email's body are skipped, so an email whose only embedded content is inline images produces nothing.

Which one to pick. For a ZIP archive the two actions do the same thing — a ZIP has no message body, so there are no inline images to leave out. The difference only matters for emails: use Extract Attachments Only when you want the genuine attachments without the sender's inline graphics.

Large batches

If the total size of the selected files comes to more than about 10.5 MB — the sizes BriefTech shows in the Size column, added together — extraction runs as a background job. A progress dialog opens automatically — you can close it and continue working; the job continues in the background. You can track its progress in the Background Jobs panel.

After extraction

Each extracted file appears as an individual document in the matter. It inherits the same folder as its source file and is linked to it as a child document. The extracted files then process independently, like any newly added document — see Document processing and errors.

The source file remains in the matter and is marked as extracted.

Extraction is free — you are billed only when you index or export the extracted files. Each extracted file becomes a standard document in the matter and consumes credits like any other, so unpacking a large archive adds to the documents you may be billed for later.

Related

Supported file formats

Which file types can contain embedded files.

Embedded file extraction

How detection and extraction work.

Background Jobs

Track extraction progress for large batches.