Comments on: Snow Leopard: Are your zip files not unzipping?

By: Jason

Jason — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 05:05:53 +0000

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

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:52:40 +0000

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?

By: Fiona

Fiona — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:06:15 +0000

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

By: larry kittiver

larry kittiver — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 20:41:10 +0000

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

By: Joe Kazura

Joe Kazura — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 18:04:04 +0000

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

By: JasonTomczak

JasonTomczak — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:00:58 +0000

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.

By: marc

marc — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 15:15:06 +0000

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

By: yapper

yapper — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:53:15 +0000

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.

By: JasonTomczak

JasonTomczak — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 18:24:24 +0000

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

By: Tarun Upad

Tarun Upad — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:58:31 +0000

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.

By: berno

berno — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 23:08:52 +0000

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