Documentation

ZIP assets return 404 on publish in AEM as a Cloud Service or AEM 6.5 with Dispatcher

Last update: Thu Feb 05 2026 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)

When ZIP files are uploaded to AEM DAM, they show as published in Author but return a 404 error when accessed on Publish. Other asset types like PDFs and images work fine. This happens because Dispatcher blocks ZIP requests by default. To fix this, update the Dispatcher filter rules to allow ZIP extensions.

Description description

Environment

  • AEM as a Cloud Service (AEMaaCS)
  • AEM 6.5 with Dispatcher

Issue/Symptoms

  • ZIP assets display a green Published status in AEM Author.
  • Directly accessing the ZIP on Publish (for example, /content/dam/.../file.zip) returns 404.
  • Replication logs show no errors.
  • Other asset types (PDF, JPEG, SVG, MP4) work fine.
  • Re-zipping or uploading new ZIP files doesn’t resolve the issue.

Cause

Dispatcher filter rules typically start with a deny-all configuration and then selectively allow only specific file types.

Example restrictive filters often include:

/0001 { /type "deny" /url "*" }

/0010 {
  /type "allow"
  /extension '(css|gif|jpeg|jpg|js|pdf|png|svg|ttf|woff|woff2|html)'
  /path "/content/*"
}

Since .zip is not included in the allowed extension list:

  • Dispatcher blocks the request.
  • The Publish instance has the asset, but the request never reaches it.
  • End result: 404 Not Found, even though replication is successful.

Resolution resolution

Follow these steps to resolve the issue:

Add .zip to the list of allowed extensions in Dispatcher filters.

  1. Open your Dispatcher configuration file.

  2. Add a dedicated rule for ZIP files:

    code language-none 
    /00xx {
        /type "allow"
        /method "GET"
        /path "/content/dam/*"
        /extension "zip"
        }

  3. Alternatively, update the existing allow rule to include zip:

    code language-none 
    /0010 {
        /type "allow"
        /extension '(css|gif|jpeg|jpg|js|pdf|png|svg|ttf|woff|woff2|html|zip)'
        /path "/content/*"
        }

  4. Redeploy the Dispatcher configuration.

  5. Test ZIP download again.

recommendation-more-help
3d58f420-19b5-47a0-a122-5c9dab55ec7f