Zip files with a password on Mac
Finder can't add a password to a zip, and Terminal's zip -e uses weak encryption. Type "zip with password 1234" and Whizra makes an AES-256 zip next to your files.
Real runs of the Mac app, recorded 1 and 2 Nov 2026. Try it yourself in the sandbox →
Zip files with a password on Mac
Type
- compress tax 2026` (a folder: compress makes a zip, like Finder's Compress)
- zip these
- zip with password 1234
- zip the last subdl.com folder with password 1234
- zip this folder and email it
What you get
One .zip. With a password it uses AES-256 (WinZip AE-2); Finder's Archive Utility opens it and asks for the password.
The original is never changed or overwritten. Undo trashes what the job made.
Type the password in your sentence or in a hidden field. History shows it as dots only.
The free Mac way
Finder's Compress has no password. Terminal's zip -e uses ZipCrypto, which is weak.
Limits
- Zips over 4 GB are refused (no Zip64 yet).
Unzip zip, RAR and 7z files on Mac
Type
- unzip it
- unzip it with password 1234
- extract the rar
- open the 7z
- unzip my last download
What you get
Like Finder's Archive Utility: one thing inside lands next to the archive as itself ("Tax 2026.zip" becomes the folder "Tax 2026"); several things go in a folder named after the archive. Nothing is overwritten: if the name is taken, you get "Tax 2026 2".
Opens .zip (password zips too, ZipCrypto and AES-256), .rar (RAR4 and RAR5), .7z, .tar and .tar.gz. It uses the archive reader built into macOS, so nothing else is installed.
Safe by default: nothing inside can be written outside the new folder, links inside the archive are left out, and so are the Mac's extras (__MACOSX folders, ._ files, .DS_Store). Files from a download keep macOS's "downloaded from the internet" mark, so an app inside is still checked before it opens.
No password said for a locked zip: Whizra says so and asks you to say it. A wrong password: it says the password didn't open it.
For a password zip, say the password in your sentence: “unzip it with password 1234”.
The free Mac way
Finder opens a plain .zip with a double-click (Archive Utility). It can't open .rar or .7z, so people install The Unarchiver or Keka (both free). In Terminal, tar -xf file.rar
also works for many archives.
Limits
- Password-protected RAR and 7z files can't be opened yet; Whizra says so and names The Unarchiver, which can.
- Stops if what's inside would be over 64 GB.
Zip for Windows: no .DS_Store, no __MACOSX
Finder’s Compress adds a __MACOSX folder and the Mac’s hidden .DS_Store files, which show up as clutter on Windows. Whizra’s zips leave hidden files out, add no __MACOSX folder, and save names so Windows reads them, Sinhala and other non-English names too. Type zip this folder
or compress tax 2026
(compressing a folder makes a zip, as in Finder).
Zip without a password, and whole folders
Type zip these
for a plain zip. Folders go in with everything inside them. Recorded on the app: the Tax 2026 folder (3 files) became Tax 2026.zip, locked with AES-256, in under 0.1 s.