Extracting files

There are four ways to extract files in Purrchiver, ranging from “drop and forget” to “I want this one file from a 10-GB archive.”

1. Extract everything (the common case)

To extract the whole archive:

• From Finder: right-click the archive, choose Services → Extract using Purrchiver. Each archive extracts to its sibling folder; a single Purrchiver window opens with the queue + per-archive progress.
• From the Loaded window: click Extract… in the toolbar (or ⌘⇧E). Pick the destination in the standard macOS folder picker.
• From Finder, multiple archives at once: select several archives, right-click, Services → Extract using Purrchiver. They all extract in one Batch Extract window with per-row progress.

Where extracted files land — the smart-default rules

Purrchiver picks a sensible destination automatically:

• Single-root archive (every entry shares one top-level folder): extracts that folder as-is, no extra nesting. MyProject.zip containing MyProject/... extracts to MyProject/ in your chosen destination — not MyProject/MyProject/.
• Loose-files archive (multiple top-level entries): creates a folder named after the archive (minus the extension). photos.zip with 20 loose JPGs extracts to photos/, not 20 files scattered into your destination folder.
• Default destination:
  • Drag-onto-dock: archive’s parent folder.
  • Services → Extract using Purrchiver: archive’s sibling folder (always — this Service ignores the General-pane double-click preference).
  • Double-click in Finder: whatever you chose under Settings → General → “When I double-click an archive in Finder” (parent folder, Downloads, browse, or ask).
  • In-app Extract…: the location currently shown in the left pane.

2. Extract a selection

Open the archive. In the right pane, select the entries you want — click, ⌘-click, or shift-click to select multiple. Then:

• Drag them to the left pane (or to a Finder window) — they extract there.
• Or press ⌘C, navigate to where you want them, ⌘V — keyboard equivalent of the drag.

3. Extract one file via drag promise

Want a single file out of a huge archive without extracting everything?

In the Loaded window, drag the entry directly to a Finder window (or to the desktop). Purrchiver uses a drag promise: it doesn’t extract until you drop, and only extracts that one file. Bypasses the “extract everything just to get this one file” pain.

(Drag-promise support is shipped for single-file drags out of the app to Finder. Multi-file drag-promises arrive in a future update.)

Extracting from an encrypted archive

If the archive is password-protected, Purrchiver prompts you for the password when you first open it (not at extract time). After that, extracting is the same as any other archive — your password isn’t requested again within the session.

If you forgot the password, Purrchiver can’t recover it. There’s no “forgot password” link, because there’s no server. See Encrypted archives for password best practices.

Extracting from a multi-part archive

Open any one of the parts (Purrchiver finds the rest automatically). Extract proceeds exactly as it would for a single-file archive — Purrchiver streams through the parts in order. You don’t need to do anything special.

See Multi-part archives for the full story.

What if extraction fails?

Common reasons:

• Wrong password → “Incorrect password. Try again.”
• Corrupt or truncated archive → “Archive is corrupt or truncated near entry X. Some entries may have extracted successfully before the failure.”
• Permission denied → “Couldn’t write to destination — permission denied. Choose a different folder or grant Purrchiver access in System Settings → Privacy & Security.”
• Disk full → “Disk is full. Free up space and try again.”

Each error tells you specifically what failed, not just “extraction failed”. See Common errors for the full list.