Most files that you download from the Internet usually come in an archived format and have one of the formats used for archived and compressed files. Opening these ZIP, RAR, TAR, BIN, and EXE files on a Mac may seem impossible in the first try as your machine is just not compatible with these formats by default.
- How To Open Rar Files
- What Software Opens Rar Files For Mac Free
- What Software Opens Rar Files For Mac Windows 10
- Convert Rar Files Mac
- Open Rar File Free Software
- What Software Opens Rar Files For Mac Download
Trying to open these incompatible file formats will only throw errors on your screen letting you know the file you’re trying to open can’t be opened. Since these file formats are some of the popular ones and you likely come across them every now and then, you’ll want to do something to make your Mac compatible with these formats.
![How open rar file free How open rar file free](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126389278/216542655.webp)
Luckily, there are multiple ways to add support for the aforementioned file formats to your Mac.
File Extension RAR. A RAR file is a compressed file that can contain any number of files and folders inside it. On Microsoft Windows, RAR files are assigned the file extension.RAR.Windows by default cannot open RAR files but you can install free 3rd party software such as Zipware to open them. RAR files are useful because they allow many files and folders to be bundled together into a single. WinZip opens RAR files. Use WinZip, the world's most popular zip file utility, to open and extract content from RAR files and other compressed file formats. A RAR file is a Roshal Archive Compressed file. RAR is the native format of an archive program called WinRAR, but there are free RAR openers available. Oct 22, 2018 But to open RAR files on the mac you need third-party software to unpack the contents or RAR file. The advantages of using RAR file instead of ZIP file are quite technical. If you are not a technical person or IT professional, you don’t need to worry and you don’t need to understand that as well.
Open ZIP, RAR, TAR, BIN, And EXE On Mac With The Unarchiver
If you’re looking for a single app or utility that can handle all of the file formats mentioned above, The Unarchiver is the one that can do it all. It’s an amazing piece of free software that adds support for basically all of the archive formats out there and lets you extract them on your Mac machine.
- Launch the App Store on your Mac, search for The Unarchiver, and install it on your machine.
- When it’s installed, you’ll need to set it as the default app for your unsupported file formats. To do this, first launch the app by clicking on Launchpad, searching for The Unarchiver, and clicking on the app.
- Most likely you’ll land in the Preferences pane for the app. If you don’t, click on the The Archiver menu at the top and select Preferences to get to the pane.
- Make sure you’re inside the Archive Formats tab as this is where you can choose what formats the app should open on your Mac. Select all the ones you want the app to open and you’ll be all set.
- If you don’t get the option to select file formats, you’ll need to set the app as the default app for each file format manually. To do this, select any file with one of the formats mentioned above, right-click on the file, and select Get Info.
- When the Get Info menu opens, find the option that says Open with. Use the dropdown menu to select The Unarchiver from the list and then click on the button that says Change All. It’ll associate the app with all the files having the format as your current one.
Next time you double-click on your file, The Unarchiver will automatically launch and open the file for you.
You’ll need to do the above steps for each file format you want to open with the app.
Open ZIP On Mac Without An App
Since ZIP is an extremely popular and widely used format, macOS had to make an exception and include it in their supported file formats. You can indeed open ZIP on Mac without the need to install any third-party apps.
Using Graphical User Interface:
- To open a ZIP on your Mac machine, locate the file using the Finder.
- Double-click on the ZIP file and it’ll be extracted in the same folder.
You’ll then be able to view the extracted contents of the archive.
Using Terminal To Open ZIP On Mac
The Terminal app also supports extracting ZIP archives without installing anything on your Mac.
- Launch Terminal using your preferred way on your machine.
- Type in the following command and hit Enter. It’ll set your desktop as the destination folder for the extracted files.
cd desktop
- Type in the following command replacing sample.zip with the actual name and path for your file. You can drag and drop your file onto the Terminal and the path will be added.
unzip sample.zip
Your ZIP file contents should now be available on your desktop.
Open RAR On Mac Using Two Methods
If it’s just the RAR format you want to open on your Mac, you have two ways to do it.
Using Extractor To Open RAR On Mac
There’s a free app on the App Store that lets you extract RAR as well as a few other archive formats on your machine.
- Launch the App Store, search for Extractor, and download it to your Mac.
- Open the app and you’ll see an interface asking you to add an archive. Drag and drop your RAR archive onto the app and it’ll open it for you.
Using Terminal To Open RAR On Mac
You can open RAR files with Terminal as well but you’ll need to first install a utility.
- Launch Terminal on your Mac.
- Type in the following command and hit Enter. It’ll install Homebrew which is a software management system.
- When Homebrew is installed, run the following command to install a utility called Unrar.
brew install unrar - Wait for the utility to install. When it’s done, use the following commands to open your RAR file on your Mac. Be sure to replace sample.rar with your own RAR file.
cd desktop
unrar x sample.rar
Open TAR On Mac Using Just The Terminal
Just like ZIP, Mac has built-in support for TAR as well and you can open TAR files on your Mac without installing any utilities.
- Open Terminal on your Mac.
- Type in the following command and press Enter. Replace sample.tar with your own TAR file.
cd desktop
tar -xzf sample.tar
It’ll decompress the contents of your TAR archive to your desktop.
Hello Friends and Fans. This is your own Steve Sadiq. Today i’ll share with you guys my working method that will solve your problem of how to open RAR files on Mac. I would like to share some useful knowledge regarding this topic so that you concepts get clear about RAR files. Before that, I would like to ask you a question. Do you know what are RAR files? What is the purpose of creating RAR files? Where RAR files are used. Why don’t we use simple files instead of RAR files?
Basically, RAR files are compressed and zipped files. RAR files are archive file formats. RAR (Roshal Archive Compressed file) files are created by compressing multiple files and compiling them to the same place. A simple RAR file that contains multiple images, doc files etc etc can be easily sent via email. The advantage of using these is that the size gets reduced. You can easily send them to through email or share them via social media messenger. Suppose you have to send a very important project to your university portal/or a business proposal/or pictures to your friends.
The files are of large size and greater in number. For sending them you need to upload them one by one. And some emails don’t allow large size files to send. Here are files solve these issues. you just to create a simple folder and place all your files in those folders. Then zip or compress the folder. All the files/pics get packed and compressed. You just need to attach this single file to send wherever you want.
Now that you have come to know about the advantages of RAR file. There also comes the issue with RAR files. When you receive an email that contains RAR files or you download a RAR file from the internet you would not be able to access that RAR file unless you unzip that.
How to Open RAR files on Windows 10
Yes, Yes I know this article is about how to open RAR files on Mac. But this will be useful for you guys if you learn this as well, this is very easy in case of windows 10. Just select the RAR file. Right-click on that. You will see option extract here, or extract a file to. Just click that and the files get unzipped. Open and use them. See how simple this was.
How to Open RAR files on MAC
How easy it was in the case of Windows. I wish to open RAR files on mac would have been as simple as it was on windows. But this is not the case at all. On the mac, you need a RAR file opener to extract and open RAR files. Let’s start and see how this is done.
You people must have heard the term ZIP files. You must be thinking that what is the difference between RAR files and ZIP files. Am I right?
Is there any difference between RAR and ZIP?
Both RAR and ZIP files are compressed archive files/folders. By default, Mac accesses ZIP archive files. But to open RAR files on the mac you need third-party software to unpack the contents or RAR file. The advantages of using RAR file instead of ZIP file are quite technical. If you are not a technical person or IT professional, you don’t need to worry and you don’t need to understand that as well. But I’ll mention for tech-related people.
In contrast to ZIP files, RAR files feature strong AES-128 encryption meaning more secure. The compression ratio is high in RAR FILES. As i have mentioned earlier mac basically supports zip archive format and not the RAR format. So to unpack the RAR files on the mac you need a third-party app or utility.
The file extension of RAR files is dor RAR [.rar] (for example – wordprss.rar)
Unlike the ZIP files, Apple’s macOS and OS X does NOT include a built-in archive utility tool that opens RAR files. Apple’s Archive Utility supports a number of file formats like ZIP, TAR, and GZIP. It does not support RAR files.
How to open RAR files on Mac using Unarchiver
There are multiple 3rd party apps available in the app store that will answer your question – how to open RAR files on Mac. The 3rd party app which I am using and sharing with you to open RAR files on Mac is Unarchiver. You can easily find the app on the utility section of the store.
You can also use the following apps to open RAR files on mac
- Dr. Unarchiver
- Open Any Files
- RAR Extractor.
What Steve Recommends
How To Open Rar Files
This is not about using 3rd party app for extracting RAR files on mac. This is general for all the apps which you download. Must read the reviews of the people and you will get the idea that which app is best suited for the purpose.
Why I have selected Unarchiver
The reason of selecting unarchiver, to open RAR files on mac, is that it is easy to use. Also it is small in size and most importantly it is a free tool. Additionally, it is an open source program and supports formats such as Zip, RAR (including v5), 7-zip, Tar, Gzip, and Bzip2.
Step by Step Guide – how to open RAR files on Mac Using Unarchiver
STEP 1
Download and install The Unarchiver
There are two options here. Download via the Unarchiver site or the Mac App Store. The developer prefers downloads from its site rather than the Mac App Store, due to limitations set by Apple and its sandboxing requirements. The developer contends that sandboxing limits the capabilities of the app.
The Minimum system requirements are Mac OS X 10.7. However, for those of us with older Macs, there is an older Mac version available via the Unarchiver site.
STEP 2
Open RAR File(s)
After you install The Unarchiver via the Mac App Store or the Unarchiver site, it’s time to open your RAR file.
Just drag & drop your RAR any compressed file onto the Unarchiver’s icon or right-click the RAR file on your Mac then select Open With and choose The Unarchiver OR double click the RAR file.
![Free Free](/uploads/1/2/6/3/126389278/684711817.png)
The Unarchiver extracts the compressed files into that same folder. After that, use these files as you would any other file. They are now the same!
THE FINAL STEP
Updated Your Mac OS?
If you recently updated your Mac’s operating system, and you discover that Unarchiver isn’t working regularly. Try uninstalling the app then going back to the site or your Mac App Store and reinstalling the app. For some reason, OS updates sometimes mess up the app, with no particular pattern.
Additionally, your firewall may be getting in that way of the Unarchiver.
So give the app a refresh and see if that helps! So make sure you allow the Unarchiver access by enabling it to receive incoming connections.
What Software Opens Rar Files For Mac Free
How to give access / allow specific application via Firewall
- The 1st step is, go to System Preferences
- In System Preferences, you will see an option of Security or Security & Privacy
- In Security/Security Privacy you will see Firewall.
- Click the bottom left lock icon and enter an administrator name and password when requested
- Select Firewall Options
- Click the Add Application (+) button
- In Applications, scroll down and click on The Unarchiver and tap Add
- Click OK to close the menu
- Click the lock icon to prevent any additional changes
- Close System Preferences
What Software Opens Rar Files For Mac Windows 10
Concluding Thought
Convert Rar Files Mac
That’s all for the day. Today you have learned, how to open RAR files on Mac. This was not so difficult. I have shared with you the slight intro of the RAR files. The importance of RAR files. Also, I have discussed with you guys about the RAR vs Zip files. The mac is by default set to open zip files. So to open RAR file on Mac, you need to have a 3rd party app.
I have shared the names of different apps that you can use. Also the methods of how to use the app to open RAR files on Mac. Finally, I have shared with you the 3 step process to open, extract files on Mac using Unarchiver. Hope now you will not have any sort of trouble to open RAR Files on Mac.
If still, something is not clear in your mind, feel free to contact me, or write in the comment section. I’ll try to answer that as soon as I can. This is your very own Steve Sadiq signing off for now.
Open Rar File Free Software
Stay Blessed.
What Software Opens Rar Files For Mac Download
Peace ?