How to resolve issue to open Document Library as Compressed (zipped) Folder Allitems.zip?

We have users reported the following issue in production last night. Users try to open one Document library http://servername/sites/department/subsite/Products  and get the following dialog with the message.

Do you want to open or save this file?

• Name: Allitems.zip
• Type: Compressed (zipped) Folder
• From: SharePoint Webapp name 

If you click "open", you're redirected to a blank page in SharePoint and users could not access the documents inside the library.

When I open the AllItem.aspx through SharePoint designer, it display the unreadable content. This indicates that this file has been corrupted. 

There are several ways you could fix it quickly. Here are two simple ways for your references.

1.  Get backup for the site and copy the AllItem.aspx to the existing site. You may require DBA to get the backup.
2. Create a new view for the library and set as the default view. Delete the previous default view AllItem.aspx. Rename the new view as AllItems.aspx.

Option one is very straight forward and no future explanation. I'll explain the option #2 here in details.

Since you are not able to access the library, the URL to the library is the default view for the library. You could access the list edit view through the following URL

http://servername/sites/department/subsite/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List=0e24c314-0848-4241-a12e-a72367a142df

 

 

Please note the last parameter is the list GUID that you could get easily through SharePoint Designer when you click the list. See the following screen shot.

 

 

 

Now, you could create the new view and set as default. You should be access the library now!

In order to keep the original URL to access the library, you could delete the previous default view AllItems.aspx. Then rename the new view to previous AllItem.aspx.


Now users could access the library using the same URL now http://servername/sites/department/subsite/Products.