Unzipping Password Protected Zip Files in OS X

In PC land, password protecting a zip file is fairly common. In OS X land, it’s not.

So what happens when you try to unzip a .ZIP file in OS X that has a password on it? OS X fires up its Archive utility and errors out with this:

(Error 1 - Operation not permitted)

Wonderful.

So what do you do?

Open up a Terminal session (it’s in the Utilities folder in Applications) and run this:

# /usr/bin/unzip [filename].zip

That will prompt you to enter a password and inflate its contents fine =)

I’ve also tested OS X compression apps: UnRARX and iArchiver.

On a side-note, Stuffit Expander will prompt for the password as well

This entry was posted on Monday, March 31st, 2008 at 5:56 pmand is filed under OS X. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Unzipping Password Protected Zip Files in OS X”

  • PH Says:
    December 17th, 2008 at 4:07 am

    Thanks for this! The process for downloading the free version of StuffIt was ridiculous!

  • Shenelle Says:
    July 23rd, 2009 at 3:29 pm

    Hey everyone. I’m hoping to meet new friends here so drop me a note when you
    get a chance.

    I hope to make some quality posts soon but first I have to look around the forum and
    familiarize myself with everyone and the forum.

    Bye for now. lol

    ***************************************************

    Biggest Loser of All Time

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