Look inside archives without extracting them.
Arcana opens 7z, zip, RAR, tar and dozens of other formats like folders in Finder. Take out just what you need, preview anything with Quick Look, and add, delete or password-protect items in place.
For macOS 15 Sequoia or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.
An archive is just another folder.
Open it, look around, take what you need. Nothing is extracted until you ask.
Finder's views
Icons, or a list with disclosure triangles and sortable columns. A sidebar with the archive's folders, a path bar, and search across the whole archive.
Every format
7z, zip, RAR and RAR5, tar with gzip, bzip2, xz or zstd, iso, dmg, cab, wim, cpio, rpm, deb, lzh and more, split archives included. The format comes from the content, not the name.
Drag out to extract
Drag items to Finder and they are extracted there, with their dates and permissions. Or click Extract to choose a folder, with or without a new folder around them.
Quick Look inside
Press Space to preview a file in the archive, and move through the rest with the arrow keys. In Finder, press Space on an archive to see what it holds.
Add and delete
Drop files on a window to add them, anywhere in the archive. Delete items with ⌘⌫. Works with 7z, zip, tar and wim archives.
Passwords
Open encrypted archives, and protect your own: AES-256 for 7z, with the file names hidden too if you like; AES-256 or the widely supported ZipCrypto for zip.
Names from any computer
File names stored in old Windows code pages, such as Shift JIS in zip files from Japan, are recognized and shown correctly.
Damaged archives
Archives that are cut short or corrupted open as far as they can be read, with a note saying what is wrong.
Your archive app
Choose which kinds of archives open in Arcana when you double-click them in Finder, one format at a time.
Every detail at a glance
The inspector shows each item's size and packed size, dates, compression method, CRC, permissions and more.
For the archive itself, it shows the format and how it is nested, such as a tar inside gzip, and everything else the archive records about itself.
A password in two steps
Choose File ▸ Set Password…, type it twice, and everything in the archive is encrypted. Change or remove the password the same way.
Keep it safe: without the password, nobody can get the items back.
Private by design.
No accounts, no tracking, no ads. Arcana works entirely on your Mac, inside the macOS sandbox, and doesn't collect any data. Privacy policy
Questions
Is anything extracted when I open an archive?
No. Arcana reads the archive's list of items directly. Files are extracted only when you drag them out, click Extract, open them or preview them; previews and opened copies go to a temporary folder.
Which archives can Arcana change?
7z, zip, tar and wim archives in a single file: you can add and delete items, and set a password on 7z and zip archives. Other formats, such as RAR, open read-only.
What if I forget an archive's password?
Then nobody can get the items back, neither Arcana nor anyone else. Keep your passwords somewhere safe, such as the Passwords app.
Someone can't open my password-protected zip file.
Some unzip tools, including ones built into many computers, can't open zip files encrypted with AES-256. Set the password again and choose ZipCrypto, which more apps understand, but which is much weaker.
How do I open archives in Arcana by double-clicking them?
Choose Arcana ▸ Settings… and check the kinds of archives Arcana should open. macOS asks you to confirm each change.
Which Macs are supported?
macOS 15 Sequoia or later, on Apple silicon and Intel.