People still think that working with the ZIP files is a source of a headache. The apprehension doubles over when it comes to Mac, where ZIP has always been a poor cousin to SIT files.

1. Free Zip Files For Mac
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But with latest updates ZIP has been built into the Mac OS 9 and latest OS X models. Making a ZIP archive has become amazingly easy. But for those who are still using older models or cannot update the Mac, below are a few of the Best Zip/Unzip applications for your Mac.

This list of Best Free Software for Mac OS now includes 281 applications in various categories. With the advent of 'iDevices', Mac OS has arguably become one of the fastest growing user bases in the last decade. To open a RAR file in any device, they first need to be extracted using a third party program in Mac OS X. The built in frameworks in Mac supports formats like TAR, ZIP, GZIP but not RAR; this doesn’t feel right.

1. UnRarX for Mac: the Best Zip software for mac

It is based on the WinRAR style that allows you to unzip RAR files. Free, easy to use interface and capacity to deal with almost any archive makes it one of the most powerful unzipping tools. You simply need to drag and drop the RAR files onto the UnRarX interface and the files will be unzipped automatically.

The controls in the toolbar allow you to browse, extract and test files to see if they are corrupt. You can password-protect your files, in which case, the password will be required to open and extract the files.

There are small glitches, where the application cannot extract files. There is, however, no developer support for these problems and it can make the software tricky for beginners. It doesn’t create RAR archives as well. But on the whole, its ease of use makes it a recommended software to unzip your files.

Also read: How to open RAR files on Mac using Rar Expander for Mac OS X El Capitan?

2. The Unarchiver for Mac

It is a more comprehensive replacement for the inbuilt Archive Utility application of OS X. It can handle way more formats than the default app and integrates better with Finder. The formats supported range from a Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2 to RAR, 7-zip, LhA and StuffIt and many others in between.

It can also manage filenames in foreign character. It is fast, free and lightweight. Doesn’t consume much system resources on your hard drive and can pretty much handle everything.

It is a complete decompression package for your Mac that is compatible with almost all the versions of Macintosh. No criticism required here, except, the missing 64-bit version.

3. 7zX for mac

This is out to replace StuffIt expander in the market. 7zX is an absolutely free file archiver that has a very high compression ratio. It compresses the file to a unique format: 7z. This format is better than both ZIP format and ZIP compatible programs.

It is highly flexible and its working spans across a vast multitude of formats that can be compressed. It can easily be decompressed without installing 7zX and hence, you can send files to your friends without any hassles.

Once downloaded onto Mac, you can simply drag the files to be compressed and drop them on its user interface. You can define the level of compression you want to achieve and password-protect your files. A terminal dialogue shows the final status after the compression.

In other words, it keeps you well updated on the progress of your work. There is another interesting twist to this one! Even though compression depends on the data used for tests, 7zX retains all the metadata in your files after decompression.

4. Zipeg for Mac

This one is a universal file opener that works for all ZIP and RAR files. With one simple click you can open up files, browse through the archives and extract just what you need. It covers a vast range of formats and this feature has made it popular.

Zipeg can decrypt password protected files using AES encryption like WinZip. It automatically combines and allows you to open multipart .zip and .rar files. It has an inbuilt, super fast ‘hover over’ preview option that uses EXIF thumbnails for image files.

For those who are looking to open multiple gmail attachments (downloaded as zip file) or browse through Facebook backup zip files, this application is ideal for you. And its absolutely free! Moreover, it’s easy to use for everyone.

5. WinZip for Mac: Another Best Zip software for mac

When it comes to zipping or unzipping files, WinZip is a household name. Extremely easy to use and a user-friendly interface has gone a long way to make it widely popular. Though it has taken many years to reach Mac, it is widely used by Mac users nowadays.

It can zip and unzip files instantly. It protects your files against corruption using banking-level AES encryption. What’s more? You can share your files directly to iCloud Drive, Dropbox, Google Drive and ZipShare from within WinZip itself.
It has provision for previewing files and integrates well with OS X. It is a paid app with a free trial period.

6. RAR for Mac

It is a common lightweight compression tool for any Mac, which can seamlessly compress and reduce the size of files, email attachments and files downloaded from the Internet. It provides kaleidoscopic options for managing your data. It can effectively backup your files., create new archives in the .zip and .rar formats.

It cannot just compress but can also extract virtually all kinds of file compression formats. It has no GUI, just terminals. So, novices can often get stranded. It also requires you to purchase a license, which has jeopardized its overall popularity in the light of better softwares like Zipeg.

7. Rar Expander for Mac

Mac has limited options when it comes to .zip and .rar files. RAR Exapnder is a quick and easy way to open WinRAR archives. A stable application, it can handle both single and multi-part archives. This comes in handy when expanding large files like videos. It also works seamlessly with password protected files. It is very easy to use with a user-friendly interface.

However, it is limited to the RAR format and doesn’t work with others. It does not restore damaged or corrupt files. For basic compressing and decompressing files on Mac, this is an excellent choice.

8. Simply Rar for Mac: Simple Zip software for mac

It is a simple and file archiver for Mac. It comes without Graphic User Interface. Speaking more subtly, rookies are going to find it difficult to use. Its company developers are now shutting shop, so those who get stuck have no way out of the mess.

But once you understand the working, this software makes archiving and unarchiving a breeze. It also allows easy browsing through the archives. You only to right click on archives to zip or unzip the files.

I was trying to move the files to another hard drive. So I archived all my photos in one large ZIP file using the Mac OS X built-in compress function.

But the file failed to extract. I've tried many programs, but none of the programs I tried were able to extract the file. I've tried Mac OS X's extract utility, StuffIt Expander, 7-Zip (command line), all failed. Mac's archive utility and StuffIt don't seem to support large files, and 7-Zip's command line version gave an error stating unsupported archive.

I have no luck in Windows either as many of my files have Chinese filenames, and couldn't extract to the correct name under Windows.

Are there some programs that can support large files, can handle files compressed using Mac OS X's compress function, and can support UTF-8 filename? With or without GUI is fine.

Update

Well, I had made the wrong decision to compress the files, and it's already too late. I thought I should be able to extract the file if I could compress it. It's too late, the original copies are gone, only a large ZIP file left here.

I have tried using 'unzip', but it says End-of-central-directory signature not found. I guess it doesn't have large file support as well.

I would try the Windows Vista method as stated by SuperMagic, but I need to borrow a computer for that. Anyway, thank you everyone, but please provide more suggestions on what software that could possibly extract that file.

Peter Mortensen

migrated from stackoverflow.comFeb 26 '10 at 20:48

This question came from our site for professional and enthusiast programmers.

8 Answers

I was in the same situation when backing up a 12GB directory.

I fixed it by using the ditto command which was readily available with the OS X Yosemite installation:

I ran into this same problem recently, on OS X 10.6.6. I have been zipping my VMware VMs up at a command line, and copying them to backup media. When I tried to unzip a backed-up VM after a hardware failure, I had a few tense minutes as I wrestled with unzip's 'start of central directory not found; zipfile corrupt' error.

After some poking around, the problem turns out to be that OS X ships with v3.0 of Info-Zip's zip, which supports the Zip64 extensions and uses them automatically when needed (so I was creating Zip64 files without realizing it), but only v5.52 of Info-Zip's unzip, which doesn't support Zip64 - Zip64 support was added in unzip's v6.0.

I have no idea why Apple didn't ship an unzip that matches the shipped zip, but I found two easy solutions:

1. MacPorts users can install unzip 6.0 using 'sudo port install unzip'.

2. The shareware archive utility BetterZip, which is a handy piece of software anyway, supports Zip64, so just by using that instead of the command line, I was able to extract my archived VM and continue my day.

If you use Homebrew, you could install 7zip with: brew install p7zip.

You can then extract the file with: 7z x filename.zip.

I believe the ZIP file format has a 4 GB total archive size limit.Wikipedia seems to support this.

If you have a Windows Vista or more recent computer available, try exploring the archive there to see if it's in the newer ZIP64 format or not.

So it's possible that the ZIP64 support is different between what created the archive and what you're using to unzip it.

Also, is there an unzip command standard in the Mac OS X command prompt?

Peter Mortensen

I had exactly the same problem..Zipped a file with the standard mac archive software.. deleted the file.. a month later tried to open the archive and got the same error --> Guess this has something with the fact that the file was over 1gb

SO I tried all and more of the software above and nothing worked after a few weeks of searching and trying I found one that worked :) So I guess this is worth mentioning:

The Unarchiver - I downloaded this from: http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.htmlthese people are my new hero's :) It has the necessary things for broken or to large zipfiles

Mac Archive Utility will unzip the file into:

E.g.: BAH.odJFh'/'archiveName'

Then go ahead and start the un-archive and wait until you get the error, then leave the dialog box open.Open terminal window.sudo sucd to the path above, remember you can type /Vo and hit tab to finish the wordget as far as you can and do a ls to see what the ramdon directory names arechange into the final directory where all your files are.then typemv * /Volumes/'Drive Name'/.. where you want to put files/.now change read write on the folder of where you moved it to including all items.

Finally click OK on the first error.You must wait to click ok on the error until after the files are moved because the OK erases all the files.

kenorb

Free Zip Files For Mac

You could use a .tar.gz archive. The default Mac Archive Utility will decompress them; just double click on the file. But I didn't see a way to force it to use .tar.gz when you compress it.

I'm not familiar with Macs; I just happen to have one near my desk at work. The Archive utility might have some GUI frontend somewhere in /Applications/utilities.

If there is no GUI, compress a folder into a .tar.gz use this command: tar czvf myarchive.tar.gz MyPhotos/

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You may be lucky trying a data recovery software. If your JPEG files have a negative compression rate and ZIP is smart enough to store them uncompressed in that case, it is possible that scanning the zip archive gives results.

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