The Unarchiver
Free macOS archive extractor that opens many compressed file formats, especially when Finder cannot handle a downloaded archive.
What is The Unarchiver?
The Unarchiver is a macOS utility for opening and extracting archive files that are not fully supported by Apple’s built-in Archive Utility. It is published by Dag Ågren and distributed through its official product site, where it is presented as a free app for macOS 10.13 or later. The app is commonly used for RAR, 7z, Zipx, old StuffIt archives, split archives, disk image contents, and other uncommon or legacy formats. Users usually encounter it after downloading archives from the web, receiving multipart files, or opening files with non-Latin filenames that default macOS tools may not handle well. It integrates with Finder by letting you set it as the default app for supported archive types, so double-clicking those files opens them with The Unarchiver instead of the system extractor. It is generally a normal utility app rather than a background component, and it is only needed if you want broader archive compatibility than macOS provides by default.
Key features
- Extracts many archive types including RAR, 7z, Zip, Zipx, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, LZMA, XZ, CAB, MSI, and ISO-based formats.
- Handles many older and uncommon archive formats such as StuffIt, ARJ, LZH, DiskDoubler, Compact Pro, and Amiga-related formats.
- Supports multipart and split archives, including files named with numbered segments like .001 and .002.
- Works with encrypted and large archives in formats that support those features, including Zip AES and Zip64 variants.
- Reads filenames with many non-Latin character encodings to reduce garbled names during extraction.
- Can be set as the default macOS app for archive files through Finder's Open With settings.
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Safety overview
Status: Safe
The Unarchiver is a well-known archive utility and is generally safe when obtained from its official site. Its main risk comes from the files you extract, not from the app itself, because archives can contain malicious or misleading content. Be especially careful with archives from unknown senders, files that unpack executable apps or scripts, and password-protected archives that bypass normal scanning.
Recommendation: Keep it if you regularly open RAR, 7z, Zipx, legacy, or multipart archives, or if macOS Archive Utility often fails for your files. If you never use it and rely on the built-in extractor or another archive tool, it is usually fine to remove.
Common paths
/Applications/The Unarchiver.app
Cache paths
~/Library/Caches/cx.c3.theunarchiver
Preference paths
~/Library/Preferences/cx.c3.theunarchiver.plist
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