RAR files are quite common, especially if you download them from the internet. However, Mac does not support opening RAR files natively. macOS has a built-in unarchive tool, but that only works for ZIP files and some other formats. So you’ll need a third-party app for your Mac to decompress the RAR files.
While there are several apps on the App Store for this job, we’ve chosen a simple and easy-to-use app to open RAR files on your Mac. If you downloaded an attachment or received a link to download the document in a RAR file, here’s how you can open it on your Mac.
What is a RAR file?
Just like a ZIP file, which is essentially an archive file type, a RAR file works similarly but offers slightly more features. A typical RAR file consists of one or several compressed files grouped together. Think of it as a ZIP file but with a higher compression level. RAR files are useful if you want to reduce the size of a bunch of files before sending them. As a result, some files you find online or receive as email attachments may be compressed into RAR files.
So you’ll need to unzip or unzip those files to see what’s packed inside. Mac lets you do that using a third-party app or an online tool. We will cover both ways in this post.
How to open a RAR file with Keka
As mentioned earlier, unfortunately there is no native way to open RAR files on a Mac. You will have to download a third-party app like Keka.
Keka is a free app and you can download it from the developer’s website. The Mac App Store version requires you to pay, and if you really like what Keka does, we recommend paying to reward the developer’s efforts.
If you’re looking for a free alternative on the App Store, check out The Unarchiver. However, we will show the steps to use Keka.
Step 1: Download Keka on your Mac using the link above. Click on the Keka DMG file.
Step 2: Drag the Keka app to the Applications folder and drop it there. This will install Keka on your Mac.
Step 3: Go to the Applications folder in the left column in Finder and double-click Keka to launch it.
Step 4: Click Open when a prompt appears.
Step 5: The app is now set up and ready to open your RAR files. However, you don’t need to open the app anymore, so you can close the Keka window at this point. Optionally, you can click the big button that says ‘Set Keka as default extractor’.
Step 6: Use Finder to navigate to the RAR file you want to open.
Step 7: Right click on the file and hover over Open With.
Step 8: Now, click on Keka.
Step 9: Select the folder where you want to extract the contents of the RAR file. Once selected, click Extract.
Step 10: Wait for the decompression process to complete. Once done, you will see a folder with the same name as the RAR file.
Keka will create a directory containing the contents of the RAR file.
How to extract RAR files online
If you don’t want to install a third-party application on your Mac to open a RAR file, you can use an online tool to extract the contents of the file. You can then download those unzipped files to your Mac to view and open them. While online tools are easy to deal with, there is always a chance that sensitive data of a RAR file falls into the wrong hands. Also, uploading large RAR files can take a long time.
Here’s how to extract a RAR file online.
Step 1: Go to an online unarchive tool like extract.me or ezyzip.
Step 2: Click the Choose File button in the middle of the page.
Step 3: Navigate to the folder where your RAR file is saved.
Step 4: Click on the RAR file you want to extract and select the Open option.
Step 5: The website will show you the contents of the RAR file. You can click on an individual file to download and open it, or select the ‘Save All as ZIP’ option to download the entire content.
It’s quite a lot. You can easily open and view your RAR file on your Mac with a few clicks. This is useful if you’re running low on memory on your Mac, or if you don’t want to download apps from any external source on your Mac.
Unzip your files with one click
With an app like Keka or even an online service, you can extract and open RAR files on your Mac with a single click. Next time you receive a compressed file in RAR format, you can easily know its contents just by uploading it to a website. If you use a Windows PC, check out the best tools to extract RAR files on Windows.
Categories: How to
Source: thpttranhungdao.edu.vn/en/
