Introduction
TAZ is a file compression format that combines two algorithms, TAR and Z. TAR is used to combine multiple files into one, while Z is used to compress them. It is primarily used on Linux and other UNIX-like operating systems, and is relatively unpopular. Files that have TAR.Z and TZ file extensions are identical to TAZ files in all aspects; these three extensions all refer to the same file format. Since TAZ is not a popular format, not many programs support it. Therefore, you might want to convert your TAZ files to another file format; ZIP will likely be the best choice. But how do you convert TAZ to ZIP on Mac? The process is actually very easy; read our guide to learn more.
What is the best way to convert TAZ to ZIP on Mac?
WinZip Mac
The best way to convert TAZ to ZIP converter on Mac is undoubtedly WinZip. It is a powerful archive manager program that is available on both Mac and Windows. It supports many archive file formats, including TAZ, and has many powerful features. It allows you to view files inside archives without extracting them, protect your archives with a password, and upload them into cloud. The Pro version also includes support for making file backups and automatically adding watermarks. But even if you aren’t interested in these features, you should know that WinZip Mac can be used to extract TAZ files and convert TAZ to ZIP. The process is both simple and fast, which is why WinZip is the best way to convert TAZ to ZIP on Mac.
Various online converters
There are several websites online that can convert TAZ to ZIP, and vice versa. We do not truly recommend any of them, as they have many issues. The most obvious one is privacy; any site that offers to convert your files may be secretly storing or analyzing them. Thus, you should not use these sites to convert archives containing sensitive data. The conversion will also take longer, especially if you have a slow internet connection.
Nonetheless, such converters still have their place; for example, if you just need to convert one file and don’t want to install any programs. Not all of them are trustworthy, but here’s a few that are more trustworthy than most.
Convertio
Convertio is a versatile converter website that can convert many files, TAZ and ZIP included. It can convert files located on your computer, as well as in your Dropbox and Google Drive accounts. It can also reverse the procedure by converting ZIP to TAZ. Despite all of this, Convertio is not very useful; free users are limited to converting files up to 100 MB in size, which is nothing when it comes to archives.
CloudConvert
CloudConvert is an alternative to Convertio that has several advantages. For one, it provides you with an option to specify the archive’s password, thus allowing you to convert encrypted archives. Additionally, it can be used to convert archives up to 1 GB in size, which is far better than Convertio’s restrictive limtation. On the other hand, it doesn’t support converting ZIP files to TAZ.
Converting the archive manually
One simple way to convert TAZ to ZIP on Mac, as well as on Windows, is to do it manually. That is to say, unpack your TAZ archive into a folder, then compress the resulting folder as a ZIP archive. Any specialized program will essentially perform the same steps, so it is not necessary to use a dedicated converter app.
Also, consider this: if you are trying to convert TAZ to ZIP so that you could extract it afterwards, creating a ZIP archive is not necessary at all. You can simply extract the TAZ file itself and be done with it.
Conclusion
The best way to convert TAZ to ZIP on Mac is a program called WinZip Mac. It works with other formats as well; for example, it can convert RAR to ZIP.
If you don’t want to install a program, you may use a website to convert TAZ to ZIP instead. However, these websites have limited functionality, and have obvious privacy issues.