Which is why human App Reviewers ensure that the apps on the App Store adhere to our strict app review standards. Our App Store Review Guidelines require apps to be safe, provide a good user experience, comply with our privacy rules, secure devices from malware. You can use built-in utilities, Terminal or third-party apps. In this article, we’ll cover best zipping and unzipping options available for your Mac. Image credit: Domenico Loia. The common way to zip and unzip files is by using your Mac’s Archive Utility, which can be accessed through Applications Utilities folder. Unzip from the Context menu. With WinZip for Mac 2.0 or later, you can right-click (or press CTRL and click) your saved Zip files and use the Context Menu to unzip them. Click on Services at the bottom of the Context menu, then choose Unzip, Email as Zip File and Add to Zip.
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From time to time, we have to deal with zip files in our day-to-day work. Maybe your friend sends you a zipped archive of photos of the party you were in last week or maybe your colleague sends you a file of documents. It’s not that often, but it happens. Moreover, zip files are very useful, when sending emails using Google Mail, because there’s a limited amount of space that is allowed to be sent. If you’re running windows, there’s no big of a deal, unzipping the files. But what about Mac?
Have you ever opened a zip file on Mac? Do you know the best way to do that? There are three main methods for it. You can use built-in utilities, Terminal or third-party apps. In this article, we’ll cover best zipping and unzipping options available for your Mac.
The Common Way
Image credit: Domenico Loia
Unzip Mac Files
![Unzip Unzip](https://www.dmxzone.com/downloads/images/mac-app-store-ss1_3.png)
The common way to zip and unzip files is by using your Mac’s Archive Utility, which can be accessed through Applications > Utilities folder. Archive Utility has the basic file compression functionality. Save as on mac. You can quickly zip and unzip files and folders, to send to your friend or upload to Dropbox.
Archive Utility can easily zip single files and folders, by right-clicking it and choosing Compress function. When compressing multiple items, the process is about the same, with only a few minor differences. Instead of showing a name of file or folder that is being compressed, in the pop-up menu, the word Compress will be followed by the number of items that are being selected. Moreover, the zip file will be automatically called Archive.zip and will be stored in the same folder as the files you were compressing.
If you want to unzip your files, the process is, all the same, just reversed. You simply right-click the zip archive, choose “Open with” and then select Archive Utility. Moments later, the archive will be unzipped. The only downside is that Archive Utility has only these two functions – compressing and decompressing. If you would want to preview the content of your archive, protect it with a password, merge the archives or use the extended range of file types like RAR, you’d need special tools. Luckily for you, there’s a vast selection of those tools. You can check “Setapp” guide called The Easiest Way to Archive Files on a Mac to learn more.
Compressions Tips Using Terminal
![Unzip software for mac Unzip software for mac](https://play.nintendo.com/images/Mario_Luigi_Wallpaper_1280x800.8e55f66a.f2561f86.jpg)
Archive Utility’s lack of functionality can be fixed by using the Terminal. Have you ever used the Terminal on your Mac? If you’re not a programmer, chances are you haven’t. The reason is that it’s not that user-friendly. Instead, you can search third-party apps, that covers all the functionality of the Archive Utility, but at the same times packs high-end features.
These features can be adding comments to the archives and deleting files from archives without unzipping it. Moreover, most of the apps are fully integrated with the macOS workflow so they will work without problems. You can also find applications for zipping and unzipping files that suggest passwords for you to use to encrypt archives.
Creating an Encrypted Archive
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Computer security is a very valuable thing in today’s digital world. Unfortunately, Apple’s Archive Utility doesn’t offer ZIP archives’ encryption with a password. The good thing is that there’s a way to do it if needed. The bad thing is that to do that, you’ll need to use the Terminal. To do so, you’ll need to open the Terminal, which can be easily accessed by pressing command + spacebar and typing “Terminal” into the search bar. In the opened window follow these actions:
- Type the following command: (single space) zip -e ~/Desktop/Archive.zip
- Drag the folder containing the files you wish to archive to the Terminal window and the command will look like this: zip -e ~/Desktop/Archive.zip /path-to-folder
- Lastly, press Enter and create a password to use for the archive and the encrypted file will appear on your desktop.
This process might look and feel a bit complicated and inconvenient, but if you need to use encryption only once or twice there’s no need to look for other alternatives. For those people who are encrypting files regularly, a third-party app is a must. It will make the process of encrypting archives effortless and much faster.
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7-Zip is a file archiver with a high compression ratio.
Download 7-Zip 19.00 (2019-02-21) for Windows: My passport ultra backup mac.
Link | Type | Windows | Size |
---|---|---|---|
Download | .exe | 32-bit x86 | 1.2 MB |
Download | .exe | 64-bit x64 | 1.4 MB |
Download 7-Zip 20.02 alpha (2020-08-08) for Windows:
Link | Type | Windows | Size |
---|---|---|---|
Download | .exe | 32-bit x86 | 1.2 MB |
Download | .exe | 64-bit x64 | 1.4 MB |
Download | .exe | 64-bit ARM64 | 1.5 MB |
License
7-Zip is free software with open source. The most of the code is under the GNU LGPL license. Some parts of the code are under the BSD 3-clause License. Also there is unRAR license restriction for some parts of the code. Read 7-Zip License information.
You can use 7-Zip on any computer, including a computer in a commercial organization. You don't need to register or pay for 7-Zip.
The main features of 7-Zip
- High compression ratio in 7z format with LZMA and LZMA2 compression
- Supported formats:
- Packing / unpacking: 7z, XZ, BZIP2, GZIP, TAR, ZIP and WIM
- Unpacking only: AR, ARJ, CAB, CHM, CPIO, CramFS, DMG, EXT, FAT, GPT, HFS, IHEX, ISO, LZH, LZMA, MBR, MSI, NSIS, NTFS, QCOW2, RAR, RPM, SquashFS, UDF, UEFI, VDI, VHD, VMDK, WIM, XAR and Z.
- For ZIP and GZIP formats, 7-Zip provides a compression ratio that is 2-10 % better than the ratio provided by PKZip and WinZip
- Strong AES-256 encryption in 7z and ZIP formats
- Self-extracting capability for 7z format
- Integration with Windows Shell
- Powerful File Manager
- Powerful command line version
- Plugin for FAR Manager
- Localizations for 87 languages
7-Zip works in Windows 10 / 8 / 7 / Vista / XP / 2019 / 2016 / 2012 / 2008 / 2003 / 2000.
p7zip - the port of the command line version of 7-Zip to Linux/Posix.
On 7-Zip's SourceForge Page you can find a forum, bug reports, and feature request systems.
Compression ratio
Unzip App For Mac
We compared 7-Zip with WinRAR 5.20.
FILE SETS: Mozilla Firefox 34.0.5 for Windows and Google Earth 6.2.2.6613 for Windows.
Download Unzip For Mac
Archiver | Mozilla Firefox | Google Earth | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
65 files 85 280 391 bytes | 483 files 110 700 519 bytes | |||
Compressed size | Ratio | Compressed size | Ratio | |
7-Zip 9.35 -mx | 39 357 375 | 100% | 15 964 369 | 100% |
WinRAR 5.20 -m5 -s -ma5 -md128m | 41 789 543 | 106% | 17 035 432 | 107% |
Best Unzip App For Mac
Compression ratio results are very dependent upon the data used for the tests. Usually, 7-Zip compresses to 7z format 30-70% better than to zip format. And 7-Zip compresses to zip format 2-10% better than most of other zip compatible programs.