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How to look inside a zip file on a Mac without extracting it

Double-clicking a zip on a Mac unpacks all of it. To see what is inside first, open it in Kutio, or press Space on it in Finder. This guide covers both.

Updated

Before you start

You need Kutio, from the Mac App Store. Browsing, previewing and extracting are free, with no account.

1. Peek from Finder with Space

Select the zip in Finder and press Space. The standard Quick Look panel shows the archive’s contents, and Kutio does not need to be open. Use this when you only want to know what is in the file.

2. Open it in Kutio

For a closer look, drag the zip onto Kutio or open it from the Finder’s right-click menu. The archive appears as a listing with name, size, compressed size and date columns.

Open folders, sort by any column and type in the filter field to find a file by name. Archives nested inside the zip open the same way. Nothing is extracted while you do this.

4. Preview a file and check its details

Select a file to see it in Quick Look. The inspector shows its size, dates and permissions, and a checksum.

5. Drag out the file you need

Drag the file or folder from the listing to the Finder, a folder or another app. Only that item is extracted, and the rest of the zip stays untouched. If you want everything, choose Extract instead.

Kutio window for many-entries.zip, titled with 100’000 items and 600 KB, with a Filter field and the columns Name, Size, Compressed and Date Modified.
A Quick Look preview of file1.txt showing one line of text, with an Open with TextEdit button.
A Quick Look panel for basic.zip showing 4 items and 2 KB, with a subdir folder and two text files.
The inspector for file1.txt, listing kind, where, size, compressed size, ratio, modified date and the start of the permissions field.

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