diff --git a/changelog/unreleased/close-archive-writer-properly.md b/changelog/unreleased/close-archive-writer-properly.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..a7b5c4f170
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/unreleased/close-archive-writer-properly.md
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+Bugfix: Close archive writer properly
+
+When running into max size error (or random other error) the archiver would not close the writer. Only it success case it would.
+This resulted in broken archives on the client. We now `defer` the writer close.
+
+https://github.com/cs3org/reva/pull/4007
diff --git a/internal/http/services/archiver/manager/archiver.go b/internal/http/services/archiver/manager/archiver.go
index 7fdfd84c64..da5c406495 100644
--- a/internal/http/services/archiver/manager/archiver.go
+++ b/internal/http/services/archiver/manager/archiver.go
@@ -63,6 +63,7 @@ func NewArchiver(r []*provider.ResourceId, w walker.Walker, d downloader.Downloa
 // CreateTar creates a tar and write it into the dst Writer
 func (a *Archiver) CreateTar(ctx context.Context, dst io.Writer) error {
 	w := tar.NewWriter(dst)
+	defer w.Close()
 
 	var filesCount, sizeFiles int64
 
@@ -129,12 +130,13 @@ func (a *Archiver) CreateTar(ctx context.Context, dst io.Writer) error {
 		}
 
 	}
-	return w.Close()
+	return nil
 }
 
 // CreateZip creates a zip and write it into the dst Writer
 func (a *Archiver) CreateZip(ctx context.Context, dst io.Writer) error {
 	w := zip.NewWriter(dst)
+	defer w.Close()
 
 	var filesCount, sizeFiles int64
 
@@ -197,7 +199,7 @@ func (a *Archiver) CreateZip(ctx context.Context, dst io.Writer) error {
 		}
 
 	}
-	return w.Close()
+	return nil
 }
 
 func isSpaceRoot(info *provider.ResourceInfo) bool {