Chapter 11 Troubleshooting

Opening and browsing

Q: Opening an archive does nothing? Verify the format is supported (see Chapter 7). For split volumes pick the .001 part. A corrupted file shows “Failed to open archive” — start with wxarc --debug and check the log.

Q: File names are mojibake? Legacy ZIP stores names in the local code page; WxArc already applies a GBK fallback. Other encodings are a packer-side problem and do not affect the extracted content.

Q: It asks for a password right after opening? That is an encrypted-header archive (file names encrypted too). Enter the correct password to browse; a wrong one prompts again.

Extracting

Q: “Insufficient disk space at the destination”? Choose another destination or free up disk space, then retry.

Q: “No write permission”? Click “Extract as Admin” in the failure list and retry after system authorization.

Q: Extracted files are scattered everywhere? Smart extraction only creates a subfolder when the archive has multiple top-level entries; a single top-level folder is extracted in place. If the destination already has the same structure, the conflict dialog asks file by file.

Q: Extraction was aborted — some files are already written? “Cancel” stops subsequent entries; files already extracted remain. Clean them up manually or extract again and overwrite.

Compressing and adding

Q: RAR is missing from the format list? RAR compression is prohibited by the UnRAR license and will never be offered; use ZIP or 7Z.

Q: The add buttons are grey? The open archive is a read-only format (RAR/PKG/ISO/installers) or a single-file stream. Only ZIP / 7Z / TAR-family archives accept additions.

Q: Why is adding to 7Z so slow? 7Z compressed streams cannot be appended, so WxArc rewrites the whole archive — the time is proportional to the archive size. That is normal.

Q: Creating a TAR archive with a password failed? TAR-family formats do not support encryption. Use ZIP or 7Z.

Interface and integration

Q: No WxArc in the context menu? Linux: the installer sets up the extension by default, but a running Nautilus must be restarted to load it. Check Settings → System Integration → File manager context menu. macOS: enable WxArc under System Settings → Login Items & Extensions.

Q: Double-clicking an archive does not open WxArc? Turn on Settings → System Integration → file association, or pick WxArc manually in the system “Open with” dialog.

Q: The theme did not change immediately? The dark/light dropdowns configure automatic switching targets; switch manually via the title bar or “Options → UI Theme”.

Reporting issues

Reproduction steps plus the day’s log from ~/.wxarc/logs/ (started with wxarc --debug) make reports much easier to handle.