How to Get Rid of Zip Files Automatically When You Open Them on Mac OS X

Have you ever felt annoyed by those pesky zip files that clutter up your Mac? I know I have. But don’t worry, I’ve got a solution for you, and it’s as easy as pie!

So here’s the deal. Whenever you open a zip file on your Mac, you might want it to magically disappear afterwards, right? Well, I’m here to tell you that it’s possible!

Now, I’m not a tech wizard or anything, but with a little bit of know-how, you can make this happen. And the best part is, it won’t take more than a few minutes of your time. So let’s jump right in!

First things first, you need to open Terminal on your Mac. Don’t panic! Terminal might sound intimidating, but it’s just a tool that lets you talk to your Mac through text commands. Trust me, it’s not as scary as it sounds.

Once you have Terminal open, simply copy and paste the following command:

defaults write com.apple.archiveutility \\\ -dauto-expander -bool true

After you hit Enter, you might be prompted to enter your password. Don’t worry, it’s just your Mac making sure you have the necessary permissions to make changes. Type in your password and press Enter again.

Now comes the exciting part! Close Terminal and open a zip file. And guess what? When you’re done, the zip file will vanish into thin air! Well, not literally, but it will be automatically deleted from your Mac.

Pretty cool, huh? No more manually trashing zip files one by one. Your Mac will take care of them for you!

But hey, what if you change your mind and want to keep a zip file after opening it? Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered.

All you need to do is hold down the Option key on your keyboard while opening the zip file. This will temporarily disable the auto-delete feature, so you can keep the file if you want. It’s like having a secret weapon in your back pocket!

So there you have it. A simple solution to get rid of those zip files that clutter up your Mac. Now you can enjoy a cleaner, more organized computer without lifting a finger!

Hey there! So, guess what? Your Mac comes with this awesome feature that lets you work with zip files without having to install any extra software. You can open, extract, and even create zip files right on your Mac. How cool is that? But here’s the thing – by default, when you double-click on a zip file, your Mac extracts its contents and keeps the original file right where it was. Now, that might not be a big deal for some, but for me, it just adds to the clutter. Why keep the zip file if I don’t need it anymore once everything is extracted, right? Lucky for us, there’s a way to change that. Let me show you how to make your Mac delete or move the zip file after you’re done extracting its contents.

Alright, before we dive in, let’s go over a quick example of what normally happens when you open a zip file on your Mac. Below, we have a folder with a zip file that I want to open. All I have to do is double-click on it.

When you extract an archive in OS X, the original archive file stays in the same folder.

After you double-click the .zip file, the contents are extracted to the same folder. So now, you have the contents of the archive file and the original .zip file. Unless you have a reason to keep the original file, you have to manually select the file in Finder and delete it. It’s an extra step that you don’t really need. But there’s a way to avoid this. You can change how OS X handles .zip files by adjusting the preferences for Archive Utility, the system tool that manages archive files in the operating system.
The Archive Utility application file is hidden in the OS X System folder: System > Library > CoreServices > Applications > Archive Utility.app. You can either navigate to that folder and launch the app, or simply use Spotlight to search for “Archive Utility”. Whichever way you choose, find Archive Utility.app and double-click to open it.

Once the app is open, click on Archive Utility in the OS X Menu Bar and choose Preferences.

The Archive Utility Preferences window has two sections. These sections let you change various options for extracting (top) and creating (bottom) archive files. In the top section, you can change the default behavior so that when you extract archives, the contents are stored in a different location instead of the same folder. This is useful if you often extract archives from different places and want all the files to be stored together in one place, like a folder on your desktop.

The “After Expanding” option allows you to decide what happens to the original .zip or .tar file after you’ve extracted its contents. Instead of leaving the file where it was, you can have Archive Utility move it to the Trash, delete it permanently (bypassing the Trash), or move it to another location. This last option can be helpful if you want to keep backups of your original archive files in a separate place, away from your main download or working folders.
In our case, we want to remove the original zip file, but we don’t want it deleted right away. So we’ll choose move archive to Trash. Any changes you make in the Archive Utility Preferences take effect immediately, so there’s no need to save or restart your computer.
Now, let’s go back to our example. Let’s try unzipping our sample file again. This time, the contents of the archive will appear in our folder, but the original .zip file will automatically be moved to the Trash once the operation is complete.

Hey there! So, here’s the deal: when I mess around with my preferences in Archive Utility, guess what happens? Yup, the original zip file goes straight to the Trash as soon as I open it. Kind of annoying, right?

Now, I reckon most Mac users are cool with either tossing their unzipped files or dumping them in the Trash. But hey, if you’re like me and change your mind later, no sweat. You can just head on over to Archive Utility Preferences and bring back the default options. Easy peasy!