Forum Discussion
RAR for mac - Does WinRAR work on mac
- Mar 24, 2025
WinRAR only has a command-line interface for mac so WinRAR does not work well on Mac. You need to go with WinRAR alternative instead.
If you want a no-fuss way to deal with RAR files on macOS, just grab FossZIP, it did everything you need.
See how it works: https://www.osxmac.com/how-to-open-rar-on-mac
When I first switched to Mac, I was confused and wanted to decompress a .rar file, but I found that it couldn't be opened by double-clicking, and the system's built-in archive utility didn't recognize this format. Then I started to study whether "rar for mac" could be used. A search on the Internet recommended a lot of third-party software, but I was stubborn and had to see if there was any way to avoid those things first.
Method 1: Command line version of WinRAR
I later found something on the WinRAR official website, called "rar for mac", but when you click on it, you will find that it is not the familiar WinRAR with an interface, but a command line version with only two files: rar and unnrar.
I did it according to the official instructions:
Drag unnrar into /usr/local/bin, or put it on the desktop for testing.
Open the terminal and cd to the directory of the .rar file
Then enter a line of command:
nginx unnrar x test.rar
The result is that it can really be decompressed, and it's pretty fast!
Although it is not a graphical interface operation, it is not difficult for people like me who usually use the terminal. The key is that this is an "official product" and I feel more assured.
At this time, I began to doubt my life again: Does WinRAR work on Mac? It turns out that it really works, but the method is different. It is too different from the right-click one-key decompression on Windows, but it does work.
Method 2: Try the system's built-in tar command
Then I also tried another unpopular method. I don't know which blog mentioned it, saying that some .rar files are actually packaged with tar and can be directly decompressed with macOS's tar.
I tried it, and sometimes it really works:
nginx tar -xvf example.rar
It will directly list the files inside and decompress them, but it can only process very "standard" .rar files, such as those with sub-volumes and encryption, which will generally report errors or fail to decompress anything.
Although the success rate is not high, it is also one of the "built-in methods", suitable for when you are too lazy to download things and need to open files temporarily.
In short, although rar for mac is not as easy to use as on Windows, it can still be solved as long as you are willing to work hard. You want to ask me Does WinRAR work on Mac? My answer is: it can be used, but not in the way you think 😂. You have to install the command line version yourself, and then do some manual work to get these compressed files. Who makes Mac not naturally support rar format~