How to Compress and Decompress Files and Folders on a Mac

This guide explains how to compress and Decompress Files and Folders on a Mac, with clear steps, practical tips, and important checks before you begin.

How to compress files and folders on a Mac

We open the Finder application and browse to the file or folder you want to compress them. If you want to select multiple files , press the Command key and then click the file you want to use. Right-click to show the menu, then click Compress in the list. If compressed multiple files will display the number of files selected

When the compression process is complete you will see the archive with the file name Archive. zip. We can change the name later.

How to extract files and folders on a Mac

We open the folder containing the file to be extracted in the Finder application, and then double click on the compressed file . Immediately, the decompression file will be extracted later. The decompression folder is also located in the same directory as the compressed file. We just need to click on that folder to see the files in the folder

The unpacked Archive Utility does not have the setting interface like other applications, but we can change the settings when compressing and extracting files and folders if desired. Open the Spotlight search bar and enter the keyword Archive Utility .

When the new interface is displayed, click Archive Utility in the top menu bar and select Preferences in the displayed menu.

New interface displayed for us to change the settings for the decompression tool, as after decompression is complete, automatically delete the compressed file.

In addition to the default compression and decompression tool on Mac, if you want to extract a lot of formats, you can install The Unarchiver application by following the link below.

1. Download The Unarchiver Mac application