How to Open RAR Files on Tahoe without Terminal?

You could use The Unarchiver, free from the App Store. Or Keka, not free from the App Store.

Yes — some file managers let you open a .rar and pull out individual files, which is handy when you don't need a full extract and don't want to open Terminal. On Tahoe I use a dual‑pane Commander One for that: open the archive, see the file list, drag a file out or preview it right from the window. A few days ago I grabbed a couple of JPGs from an ~1.2 GB archive — took about 10 seconds, no command‑line fiddling. So using a manager works and saves time if you just need to quickly grab one thing.

Rarog888 wrote:

I will check your recommendations. Good to know one of them is free. Thank you!

there is a free version of Keka, but it depends on how you download it. You can get it for free directly from the developer's website ref: www.keka.io

I do not remember paying anything for the app, but I have had for so long maybe I am wrong. In all honesty I try to avoid the app store and its limitations...if you can go directly to the source.

of course there are others like StuffIt Expander:

https://www.stuffit.com/

yep — macs don’t handle RARs natively. Finder/Archive Utility only knows ZIP, so double‑clicking a .rar usually just does nothing. RAR started on Windows, so Tahoe won’t unpack it out of the box.

also, if it’s a multipart archive (.part01/.r00 etc.) or passworded, GUI tools can fail silently — that’s why the file might look like it’s sitting there doing nothing.

bottom line: Tahoe won’t open a .rar by itself, you’ll need a GUI app that understands the format.

leroydouglas wrote:

there is a free version of Keka, but it depends on how you download it. You can get it for free directly from the developer's website ref: www.keka.io

It was free at one time, before they were in the App Store. If you check the website you posted, you will see it's no longer available as a direct download. I installed it pre-App Store.

leroydouglas wrote:

of course there are others like StuffIt Expander:

https://www.stuffit.com/

Egad, that caused me to have a flashback to System 7.

I have both of the utilities that @dialabrain mentions, I typically use Keka because it handles more file types.

Rarog888 wrote:

Is there an easy way to do this on Tahoe without using the Terminal?

It depends on how you define "easy".

Tahoe definitely does have native support for RAR files, but only in the Terminal. You can create an AppleScript that does it. Here is one example:

on open theFiles
	repeat with aFile in theFiles
		set filePath to POSIX path of aFile
		set fileName to name of (info for aFile)
		
		-- Check if it's a RAR file
		if fileName ends with ".rar" then
			try
				-- Extract based on file type
				if fileName ends with ".rar" then
					do shell script "tar -C ~/Downloads/" & " -xf " & filePath
				end if
				
				display notification "Successfully extracted: " & fileName with title "RAR Extracted"
				
			on error errMsg
				display dialog "Error extracting " & fileName & ": " & errMsg buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon stop
			end try
		else
			display dialog "Not a supported RAR file: " & fileName & "
Supported formats: .rar" buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with icon caution
		end if
	end repeat
end open

Unfortunately, AppleScript is a bit strange. This is one area where I have no qualms about using an AI. There's no way a software developer like myself with only a few decades of professional experience could construct such a complicated script. And I'm not making some kind of joke here. I literally can't do this. Even the AI's script wouldn't run. There was nothing I could do to get it to give me the parent folder of the dropped in item. So I had to hard code it to ~/Downloads and that worked. I had assumed the problem was due to some sandboxing restriction, but that would have definitely blocked a hard-coded path like this.

But I digress. I thoroughly despise AppleScript. I would have written a stand-alone app instead. But whatever.

Yep — it’ll ask you for the password. When you try to open or extract the RAR, a password box pops up. If you type the wrong one, it just won’t show/extract the files. Sometimes the archive can look empty until you enter the password — that’s normal for some protected RARs.

You're welcome.

It is free from the developer's website, as I indicated. You just need to click the download link, not the Mac App Store button.