Your files stay on your Mac.
TAR + Bzip2 archives use bzip2 compression, which unpacks slower than gzip and is less universally supported by build tools and package managers. Converting to TAR + Gzip rewraps the same TAR content under gzip compression, producing .tar.gz files that decompress faster and work out of the box with virtually every Unix toolchain. Convertessa performs the recompression entirely on your Mac — no file ever leaves your machine.
Drag one or more .tar.bz2 files — or an entire folder — onto Convertessa. The app reads only the archive wrapper; the contents are preserved as-is.
Choose TAR + Gzip from the output format list. Convertessa will repack each archive using gzip compression and write the result as a .tar.gz file.
Click Convert. Your .tar.gz files are saved alongside the originals or to any destination folder you select. Nothing is uploaded anywhere.
Images, audio, video, documents, archives and eBooks — all converted natively, right on your Mac.
Pick a format you have — see everything Convertessa can turn it into.
Convert hundreds of files at once with per-type group defaults and individual overrides.
First-class support for HEIC, AVIF and WebP — encode and decode, both ways. Read JPEG XL and a dozen more modern formats too.
Drop files anywhere on the window. Native, instant, and exactly what you’d expect on a Mac.
Dial in compression, resolution and bitrate. Keep originals pristine or shrink for sharing.
Never overwrite a file by accident. Convertessa appends safe suffixes automatically.
Every job is logged locally. Re-run a previous conversion or revisit recent outputs in a click.
Bundle your converted files straight into a single ZIP, TAR or 7z — packaged and ready to share the moment a job finishes.
Right-click any file in Finder and choose Convert. A Quick Action handles it on the spot — no need to open the app first.
Shrink Convertessa to a tidy mini window that tucks into a corner — just a drop zone and a format picker for quick, one-off conversions.
No cloud. No account. No upload. Every conversion happens entirely on-device, using the power already in your Mac. What you convert is nobody’s business but yours.
Script conversions, wire them into your build, or batch a folder from the terminal. The same engine, no GUI required.
Read the full CLI documentation →Shrink Convertessa down to a small, focused window — drop, convert, done, with your recent conversions one click away.
macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon & Intel
New formats, new features, and fixes — every release, on the record.
No. Convertessa only recompresses the outer wrapper. Every file inside the TAR — including names, permissions, and timestamps — is preserved exactly as it was in the original .tar.bz2.
Not usually. Bzip2 often achieves slightly better compression ratios than gzip. The advantage of .tar.gz is speed: gzip archives compress and decompress significantly faster, which matters in CI pipelines and automated builds.
Yes. Drop a folder onto Convertessa and every .tar.bz2 inside is converted to .tar.gz in one pass. From the command line, point the CLI at a directory: convertessa ./archives/ --to tar.gz.