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.
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
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.
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
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.
Thanks for posting this, I still had trouble with zip files after doing this, but restarting did the trick.
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.
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
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
Wow, thanks for that! First thing I’ve tried and it works.
Is it really necessary for Apple to make the decision for me and decide, the moment I download a ZIP file it should automatically be UN-zipped?
Why does Apple think that should be the way? Maybe I want to keep the file zipped and maybe I am old enough to make my own decision when to unzip such a file!
And there is no help topic available neither (least not for snow leopard 10.6.2) on how to tell the Archive Utility.app to unzip on demand! It really needs to stay Apple’s decision, right?
Hey Pete – none of my ZIP files auto-unzip on download. You may have selected the download option to open that file type instead of just downloading it. If you’re using Safari, open Preferences and see whether or not there’s a check mark next to the “Open safe files after downloading” option. By unchecking that option, downloaded files like ZIPs and DMGs will just download.
Jason