diff --git a/src/archive/zip.rs b/src/archive/zip.rs
index c3ce44b..fa0ab18 100644
--- a/src/archive/zip.rs
+++ b/src/archive/zip.rs
@@ -145,7 +145,9 @@ where
     W: Write + Seek,
 {
     let mut writer = zip::ZipWriter::new(writer);
-    let options = zip::write::FileOptions::default();
+    // always use ZIP64 to allow compression of files larger than 4GB
+    // the format is widely supported and the extra 20B is negligible in most cases
+    let options = zip::write::FileOptions::default().large_file(true);
     let output_handle = Handle::from_path(output_path);
 
     #[cfg(not(unix))]
@@ -220,15 +222,9 @@ where
                 };
 
                 let mut file = fs::File::open(path)?;
-                let large = file.metadata().map_or(
-                    true,
-                    |metadata| metadata.len() > 0xffffffff, // 4 GB
-                );
                 writer.start_file(
                     path.to_str().unwrap(),
-                    options
-                        .large_file(large)
-                        .last_modified_time(get_last_modified_time(&file)),
+                    options.last_modified_time(get_last_modified_time(&file)),
                 )?;
                 io::copy(&mut file, &mut writer)?;
             }