Shouldn't .tar files open automatically?

Is there an error message?

Create a new folder and drag the .tar file into it. Then double-click the .tar file. Maybe when the archive is extracted it is creating a new folder with a name you are not expecting so this will make it easy to find/see the extracted contents.

If this doesn't work, then you can use the Terminal app and the command line which may provide more information if there is an issue extracting the files. It is easiest to auto-fill the path to the source & destination by dragging & dropping the items from the Finder window onto the Terminal window where the <path-to-....> exist within the following commands.

You can list the contents of the archive by using this command:

tar  -tf  <path-to-tar-file>

To extract the archive using the Terminal, use the following command:

tar  -xvf  <path-to-tar-file>   -C  <path-to-destination-folder>



This command will extract the contents of the "<path-to-tar-file>" file to the "<path-to-destination-folder>". Note the "-C" must be an uppercase "C".