Open HQX files in your browser
BinHex wrapped Mac files in plain text to travel by email and the web. Open one right here, and the file it carries opens. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your archive opens like a folder, its files listed on the left.
- Listed like a folder • Unpacks only what you pick
- Locked archives • Hidden file names included
- Search • Find any file by its name
- Export • Save as ZIP or Extract all
About HQX
BinHex 4.0, by Yves Lempereur in 1985, turns a Mac file, both its forks and its Finder info, into lines of plain text that email and Usenet could carry without breaking it. For years Mac software was shared as .sit.hqx files, a StuffIt archive inside BinHex, on download sites and in mail.
Each line holds 64 characters of a code close to base64, after a first line that says what it is, and CRCs check the name, the data and the resource fork. Macs no longer come with an app that unwraps it, and Windows and phones only show its text.
Filepeek reads the BinHex, wherever its first line is, past a mail's headers too, and opens the file it carries: a .sit.hqx as the StuffIt archive inside it, and any other file as itself, its resource fork beside it as the ._ file Macs read back and its type and creator in Show details.
BinHex file
.hqx
Format
- MIME type
- application/mac-binhex40
- Made by
- Yves Lempereur
- Released
- 1985
Inside the file
- Format
- Plain text, 64 characters a line
- Carries
- One Mac file, both forks
- Checks
- A CRC for each part
- Often
- A StuffIt archive inside
Opens in every browser
Filepeek unwraps BinHex with a reader of its own in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. On their own, browsers show it as text.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open HQX
- WindowsNo app built in opens it
- MacThe Unarchiver and StuffIt Expander
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
How do I open a .sit.hqx file?
Drop it here as it is. Filepeek unwraps the BinHex and opens the StuffIt archive inside, its files listed like a folder.
What does (This file must be converted with BinHex 4.0) mean?
It's the first line of every BinHex file, saying the text after it is a Mac file in BinHex. Drop the file here and Filepeek turns it back into the file it carries.
Can I open an .hqx from an old email?
Yes. Save the attachment, or the email itself under a name ending in .hqx, and drop it here. Filepeek finds where the BinHex begins, past the mail's headers.
What's the ._ file beside my file?
It holds the file's resource fork, kept as macOS keeps one on disks it doesn't own. Copy both to a Mac and it puts them back together.