#Archive utility mac how to
#Archive utility mac mac os x
#Archive utility mac zip file
#Archive utility mac archive
#Archive utility mac full

Though macOS can create a password-protected compressed file without the aid of an additional program or application, you will have to use Terminal on your Mac to enter commands manually into your computer.

#Archive utility mac zip file

While compressing and decompressing files on macOS is incredibly easy, creating a password-protected zip file on your Mac takes a little more patience and effort than simply right-clicking on a file.

#Archive utility mac how to

How to Create a Password-Protected Zip File

The new file will have a “.zip” extension. For small files, the compression will occur almost immediately, and you will see a new file in the same directory as the unzipped file. Depending on the size of your file or folder, it may take some time to finish the compression step. From this menu, select “Compress ‘'” in order to compress your file. To open the compression menu, right-click on the file or folder inside Finder or on your desktop.

#Archive utility mac archive

No matter whether you are compressing a single file or a folder, the compression system with Archive Utility works the same.

#Archive utility mac full

Both individual files and folders full of files can be zipped, though if you are sending a large number of individual files, you’ll want to place them into a single folder in order to compress. So no matter which version of macOS you are running, it’s easy to gain access to and use this tool.įirst, find the file or folder you want to zip. The tool, Archive Utility, has been around since MacOS X 10.3, making it widely available on every Mac sold over the past decade. That said, thanks to cloud-based services that have far higher file size limits than those available from email providers in the 2000s, it’s easier than ever to send and upload your work without having to compress it. This will allow the service you’re using to easily send the file over the web, without having to worry about your recipient not being able to access the file. So, when should and shouldn’t you zip a file? Typically, if you are trying to send someone a file over the internet, through email or other means, and the file is too large to upload to the server, you will want to make sure you have compressed the file down in size. Though modern operating systems can view the contents of a zipped folder without having to unzip or decompress the files inside, you typically need to decompress the file before you can use any of the zipped files. zip, which is supported by both macOS and Windows, along with other operating systems such as Android. “Zip” itself refers to the file type of a compressed file. A TAR archive can contain a single file, so that can be used to work around the issue for compressing individual files.“Zipping” a file simply means using a utility on your Mac to compress a file or folder down to a much smaller size, without losing any quality in the file or folder.

#Archive utility mac mac os x

Mac OS X insists that there must be a TAR archive inside XZ files or it will choke on it. Only XZ files containing a TAR archive are supported. Single-file XZ file streams like those created by XZ Utils, 7zip, and other popular compression utilities are entirely unsupported. It turns out the XZ support in Mac OS X 10.10 is kind of broken. Without installing anything, a TAR archive can be created with XZ compression using the tar program with the undocumented -xz argument. XZ Utils can, however, be installed using homebrew for anyone wanting to distribute software or other files in XZ files. Neither is XZ Utils included for use in the command-line. There’s no way to create XZ files from the graphical user interface. XZ only supports a single file so another format, like TAR, must be used to create an archive to contain multiple files in one compressed file. tar.xz for TAR archives compressed in an XZ file. On most files, it will produce files that are much smaller than those of the venerable ZIP format.Īrchive Utility has added support for the file extensions. XZ is a file format that uses the highly efficient LZMA compression algorithm. XZ files can now be opened effortlessly by double-clicking on downloaded XZ files. Its interface is seen as a small window showing the overall progress of the operation. The built-in Archive Utility on Mac OS X 10.10 “Yosemite” now supports decompressing/extracting from the highly efficient XZ compression format.Īrchive Utility is a small program that opens when users compress or decompress files in Mac OS X. I’ve stumbled upon a pleasant new feature for those who like their downloads compact and fast.