Snow Leopard: Are your zip files not unzipping?

August 30, 2009 – 9:54 pm

After updating my MacBook Pro to Snow Leopard, I noticed that I was unable to open .zip archives. I use The Unarchiver to open my Mac and PC-compatible archives. When I attempted to open a zip file, Unarchiver had been overtaken by Snow Leopard’s “Archive Utility”, and the Archive Utility.app kept freezing and required numerous Force Quits. I went through all kinds of debug actions, but nothing fixed the perplexing problem. I checked Google and found only one forum thread, but folks were suggesting that “Stuffit Expander” be used instead of Snow Leopard’s default utility. That’s not a solution, but a side-step around a critical booboo.

I recloned my hard drive and prepared to wipe everything and install a fresh copy of Snow Leopard. Literally on the verge of rebooting for the clean-sweep, I opened Disk Utility and ran the “Repair Disk Permissions” and “Verify Disk” functions.

Lo and behold, the zip archives are now opening with Snow Leopard’s built-in Archive Utility (which no longer freezes up). I re-installed Unarchiver and reset it as the default unzip app. All’s well, and I saved myself an evening of reinstalling all my apps. Phew!

If anyone else out there Googles “Snow Leopard won’t unzip” or “Archive Utility.app not working”, I hope they land here for the quick and easy fix.


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9 Responses to "Snow Leopard: Are your zip files not unzipping?"

  • thanks a lot ! after deleting the “com.apple.finder.plist” file
    snow leo unzipps all the zipped files. i had a problem with the zip files and some dmg’s won’t open, but both is fixed right now !
    thx

    Written by: berno on Sep 5, 2009

  • Or you can:
    a) launch the unarchiver app and open its preferences screen
    b) go to “archive formats” and press “select all”. This will re-associate files with unarchiver app.

    Written by: Tarun Upad on Sep 14, 2009

  • Hi Tarun,

    You’re absolutely right – launching “unarchiver.app” and fiddling with preferences will work, but only if unarchiver.app actually opens.

    In my case, neither unarchiver.app nor Snow Leopard’s native archive utility.app would open. Both would freeze up 100% of the time.

    In this extreme situation, the only apparent solution is to repair permissions or delete the “com.apple.finder.plist” file from your /Library/Preferences folder and reboot.

    Barring the above situation, your preferences tip is great.

    Jason

    Written by: JasonTomczak on Sep 14, 2009

  • Hi Tarun,

    Thanks for your suggestion but … zipped files were opening in The Unarchiver with a double click. All I got was an error message saying it couldn’t do the job. I forced Archive Utility to open my zipped files … it didn’t work either. It just re-compressed the zip file. ???

    So I downloaded Zipeg. It did the job. All OK.

    I’d prefer to stick with The Unarchiver so I’ll do the permissions rebuild thing. Thanks Jas. Do you get Jas? I get Jas.

    Written by: yapper on Sep 28, 2009

  • Thanks for posting this, I still had trouble with zip files after doing this, but restarting did the trick.

    Written by: marc on Sep 29, 2009

  • Hi Marc,

    This little zip/dmg bug seems to get more and more convoluted as time goes by. I filed a bug report at Apple OS X Feedback. There’s also a more official Apple Bug Reporter that requires you log in with your Apple ID. Either will do. I’d suggest you file a report so Apple hears your voice, too.

    BTW, a full restart works, but a quick logout/in works for me. I’m looking forward to a fix in 10.6.2.

    Written by: JasonTomczak on Sep 29, 2009

  • Hi Jason – I can’t stress enough how important it is to “repair permissions”, as you have discovered! Another point I’d like to add (which another poster corroborated) is re-starting AFTER repairing permissions. You can automate this if you wish, create a “weekly.local” file in the ‘etc’ directory:

    In the Terminal app, type this:

    sudo nano /private/etc/weekly.local

    and paste the following (between the dashed lines) into the nano editor:
    ———-
    #!/bin/sh
    echo “”
    echo “Repairing disk permissions:”
    echo “”
    diskutil repairPermissions /
    echo “”
    shutdown -r now
    ———-

    Cheers,

    Joe

    Written by: Joe Kazura on Oct 21, 2009

  • I hadsame problem with Archive Utility frezzing up and had to use froce quit since file won’t unzip. I did suggested and here’s hoping it works

    Written by: larry kittiver on Nov 13, 2009

  • Wow, thanks for that! First thing I’ve tried and it works.

    Written by: Fiona on Feb 15, 2010

 

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