Archive Explorer

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macOS Archive Utility

By Apple · since 2002 · Proprietary (built into macOS) · official site →

Overview

Archive Utility is the built-in macOS extractor that opens when you double-click a .zip or .tar.gz. It is competent for everyday ZIP and tarball use, but it cannot handle RAR, 7z, or many other formats and produces extra "__MACOSX" metadata folders that confuse Windows users.

Best for

Casual ZIP extraction on macOS without installing anything.

Limitations

No RAR, no 7z. Adds .DS_Store and __MACOSX/ folders to ZIPs created on macOS.

Supported formats — create

macOS Archive Utility can create the following archive formats:

ZIPTARGZIP

Supported formats — extract

macOS Archive Utility can extract:

ZIPTARGZIPBZIP2XARCPIO

Installation

Where to download

The official download is at https://www.apple.com/macos/. Avoid third-party download sites — they often bundle adware or worse with otherwise legitimate archivers.

Operating systems supported

macOS

How to use macOS Archive Utility

Extracting an archive

  1. Locate the archive in your file manager (or terminal).
  2. Right-click and choose the macOS Archive Utility entry, or run the equivalent CLI command.
  3. Pick a destination folder.
  4. Wait for extraction to complete — speed depends on archive size and chosen algorithm.

Creating an archive

  1. Select the files or folders you want to bundle.
  2. Open macOS Archive Utility and choose Add (or drag the selection onto its window/dock icon).
  3. Pick a target format from the supported list above.
  4. Optionally set a password — prefer AES-256 over legacy algorithms.
  5. Click OK and wait for compression to complete.

Alternatives

If macOS Archive Utility is not the right fit, consider these alternatives covered in our software directory: