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Does the Compress option in Finder cause quality loss?

Hi, I'm curious about the "Compress" option that appears when you right-click anything in Finder. I know it makes a .zip file when you select the option. But does this compression cause any quality loss? I have tons of (.wav) and (.mp3) libraries that I would like to compress for storage purposes. It is extremely important that there will be no loss in sound quality or file integrity. Any thoughts?

Best Answered by

iBoysoft author Jenny Zeng

Jenny Zeng

Answered on Tuesday, December 3, 2024

No, the built-in Compress option on Mac doesn't reduce file quality.

If you right-click on a file and select Compress on Mac, the operating system will make a compressed file with the ZIP format. It does this by creating an index of the long binary and character sequences in the file and assigning them shorter symbols. The reduction of characters and bytes is the reason why the ZIP file becomes smaller in size.

When you unzip the file, the information that was replaced will be restored. So there's no difference between the source and unzipped file. In a word, ZIP is a lossless compression format.

Although this Compress option on Mac is convenient, it doesn't allow you to choose a different compression level or encrypt the ZIP file. If you have these needs, you can use iBoysoft MagicMenu to compress your files instead.

It lets you zip a file or multiple files on Mac at once with a right-click, choose a higher compression level to further reduce file size, and set a password to protect the zipped file.

Click the button below to download it for free!

Read Also:

How to Compress Audio Files on Mac?

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