Automator to extract multiple RAR files

I have worked out an easy way that is free & easy to implement. "The Unarchiver" has an option to delete archives after unarchiving, with Automator you can simply create a folder action that opens rar, zip & other file types you like in "The Unarchiver".

Check out my SnapGuide here on how to do it:

http://snapguide.com/guides/extract-delete-ziprar-files-with-mac-automator

Hi there,

Thanks for that awesome guide on your snapguide page i've been trying to work this out for months but couldn't until your guide - so thank you!

I have one little issue with it though i was hoping you could help me out with - after my unarchiver app extracts the archive (from a subfolder of "downloads" to "downloads" it then automatically opens up the file (a movie file in this example) with its default app. I don't want that second stage to happen. So i changed "default application" in automater to "the unarchiver" app instead. But then from my downloads folder after the workflow completes form the subfolder it then runs again on the downloads folder (which it shouldn't) and tries to open the movie file in the unarchiver too.

Screenshot of the automated workflow:

In fact, when i just took a screenshot and saved it to my downloads folder i got this error pop up - i must be doing something wrong here as the automaker workflow seems to be running on the downloads folder too but now not even with a rar or zip file extension. PLEASE HELP 🙂

you're almost there! just had the EXACT same issue.. the problem is The Unarchiver can't process a folder or picture itself.. once I changed the "Open With" to "System Default", everything worked great! not sure why this is.. but it works!

Hello everyone,

After setting up the Automator action, I pasted a folder that contains a sequence of .rar files (.r00,.r01,.r02.....rar). It simply opens the folder in which the .rar file is contained in. Sadly it is not extracting (uncompressing) the file. I have Automator Open Finder Item set to Default Application. If I set it to The Unarchiver, I get an error saying "the content could not be extracted with this program", just like the other person above mention.

I ensured that my DefaultApplication for .rar files is in fact The Unarchive.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
Tom.

EDIT: Never mind, I realized I was putting a dot before the file extension. Everything is working now that I removed the dot.

Thank you for this.

Pretty nice workflow, works perfectly. To avoid the error message from alee009 I've exchanged the "find finder items" with "filter finder items". Then it works fine.