How To Unrar RAR Files On Your Mac

Hey

There are many ways in which you can unrar rar files. In a similar method of yesterdays post on how to play mkv files, todays post is going to mention some of the different ways to unrar rar archives. Since there are many ways to skin a cat there are also many ways to unrar these archives. Pretty much every app mentioned here does the same thing and there isnt much difference between them. The only difference is between the command line program and the GUI apps. Since the built in Archive Utility doesnt have a support for rar files its worth having an app that can support these files when the time comes.

UnRarX

The app that I use regularly is UnRarX. From the many apps that I have tried it seems to be the best. Like most of these apps it is a no nonsense app that gets the job done. Unlike most other apps it has a small window which tells you what it is doing rather than a simple progress bar. This way when you get a corrupt archive or a file that wont fully extract it will tell you what exactly is happening and you should be able to quickly diagnose the problem.

Command Line

One the other ways that I personally use to extract rar archives is the WinRAR command line tool. I have mentioned in the past how to use this tool and one of the main advantages of using it is the ability to extract broken archives quickly. Although other programs have broken file support I prefer a to use a quick terminal command to get the job. Its also very useful for use in scripts and has come in handy many times.

Stuffit Expander

I used the app a long time ago it is Stuffit Expander. It works in much the same way as the other apps in this post. Stuffit Expander is designed to work with the other Stuffit Apps which is great if you do a lot of compression and extraction of files. It does work on its own so you dont need the rest of the suite. If you want something that looks a bit prettier Stuffit Expander is a good choice.

iArchiver

Continuing on with the list is iArchiver. Its the first and only paid app on this list. Unlike the other apps it is designed primarily to compress files into archives, although it does have extraction capabilities as well. Its very similar to the Stuffit suite however it is only one app and not a couple of apps as is the case with Stuffit. I have reviewed this app in the past and if you are going to use this app its worth checking out what I have said.

RAR Expander

The last two options on the list are very simple expanders. Similar to the way Archive Utility is used to expand zip files, RAR Expander does this for rar files. If you want a simple expander this app is probably for you.

Unarchiver

The final post to complete everything off is Unarchiver. Its a simple free app that is very similar to RAR Expander. I havent tried it however it is probably very good.

If you have an unraring app that you recommend please leave a comment using the form below.

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