Skip to main content

Extracting several archives at once

Drop two or more archives onto the Purrchiver dock icon (or the Welcome window) and Purrchiver opens a dedicated batch-extract window. The window lists every archive you dropped, lets you pick one destination folder for all of them, and works through them one at a time — marking each as completed as it goes.

Batch Extract window working through several archives to one destination, with the Activity window

When the batch window appears

Purrchiver shows the batch window only when every item you dropped is a recognized archive format (ZIP, RAR, 7z, tar, .tar.gz, .tar.bz2, etc. — see Format support).

If you drop a mix of archives and other files, Purrchiver assumes you want to compress everything together and opens a new compress window instead — same as single-file behavior.

Where the extracted files land

Each archive extracts into your chosen destination. If the archive contains a single top-level folder (like photos.zip → photos/…), the contents land in that folder directly under your destination. If the archive contains loose files at the top level, Purrchiver wraps them in a folder named after the archive so things stay tidy.

For example, dropping photos.zip (top-level folder photos/), music.7z (loose top-level files), and backup.tar.gz (top-level folder backup/) with destination ~/Downloads:

  • ~/Downloads/photos/ (from the archive’s own top-level folder)
  • ~/Downloads/music/ (wrapped because the archive had loose files)
  • ~/Downloads/backup/ (from the archive’s own top-level folder)

Encrypted archives in a batch

Encrypted archives in a batch are marked as failed in the queue with the password error inline — batch extract doesn’t prompt for passwords mid-run. The other archives in the batch continue normally.

To extract an encrypted archive, open it directly in Purrchiver (double-click in Finder, or drop it on the app by itself). The single-archive flow surfaces the password prompt and unlocks normally. After unlocking, you can drop the remaining unencrypted archives as a batch.

When the batch finishes

The window stays on screen with a summary of each row’s outcome (✓ done / ⚠ failed / – cancelled). Click Done to close. No post-completion popup, no surprise dialog — same as single-archive extract.

Canceling mid-batch

Click Cancel at any time. The currently-extracting archive is cancelled; the remaining queued archives are also marked Cancelled.

Archives that already finished stay on disk — cancellation doesn’t roll those back.

Watching progress in the Activity window

Batch progress is also surfaced in Purrchiver’s global Activity window (Window → Activity, or ⌘0). Useful if you want to flip back to the Welcome window or another archive while a batch runs in the background — the Activity window keeps a live view of every queued, running, and finished job in one place.

Dock badge during a batch

Purrchiver’s dock badge shows the count of non-terminal jobs across the whole app (Queued + Running) — every extract and compress, not just batch jobs. While a batch is running, you’ll see the remaining count tick down as each archive finishes; the badge clears when the queue is empty.

See Activity window → Dock badge for how this fits together with the Activity window’s job list.

Tips

  • Drop a Finder selection of archives. Cmd-click several archives in Finder, then drag them all to the Purrchiver dock icon. Faster than opening Purrchiver first.
  • Pick a sensible destination at the start of each batch. The destination picker doesn’t persist between batches — set it fresh when you open the batch window.
  • Encrypted-in-batch is a known limitation. Batch extract doesn’t prompt for passwords mid-run. For encrypted archives, open them one at a time.