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Settings – Passwords

BetterZip can collect every password you enter for an encrypted archive and save it in a secure vault. Once a password is in the vault, BetterZip can try it automatically the next time you open an encrypted archive, or offer the whole list as suggestions in the password panel. The Passwords tab is where you set up the vault, populate it, and decide how aggressively BetterZip should use it.

For the password panel itself – how it appears when BetterZip needs a password it doesn’t have – see Password Panels.

Master Password and Unlocking

The first time you visit the tab you’ll see Before you can use the password manager, you need to set a master password. Click Master Password… and enter your desired password twice. BetterZip uses it to encrypt the vault.

Once set, click the lock icon to unlock the vault. The lock state is application-wide: while unlocked, BetterZip can try stored passwords when opening archives and offer them in the password panel; while locked, it can’t. The same lock can be toggled from the menu (BetterZip > Unlock Password Manager) or from inside any password panel.

While the vault is unlocked the master password is held in the macOS keychain so BetterZip can read the vault without asking. When you lock the vault the master password is removed from the keychain and the vault is unreadable until you type the master password again. Don’t forget it: there is no recovery; the Reset Password Manager command (see below) is the only escape and it wipes every stored password.

The Lock when checkboxes let you decide when the vault auto-locks: after N minutes of inactivity, when BetterZip quits, when BetterZip isn’t the active app, when the Mac wakes from sleep or restarts. Leave them all unchecked and the vault stays unlocked once you’ve opened it.

Automatic Password Use

When you open an encrypted archive, BetterZip can try every stored password for you instead of asking. The popup at the top of the tab picks the strategy:

  • Disable the password cache completely: BetterZip won’t even keep a short-term in-memory cache. Strictest security; you’ll be prompted every time, even for the archive you opened ten seconds ago.
  • Don’t try passwords automatically, but use in password panel: never auto-guess. The stored list is offered as a popup in the password panel so you can pick the right one without typing.
  • Automatically try passwords, except for RAR archives – the recommended balance. Zip and 7-Zip archives let BetterZip verify a password instantly, so trying twenty stored passwords is cheap. RAR, by contrast, often requires extracting the whole archive to know whether a password is right – trying twenty stored passwords against a 10 GB RAR can take an age.
  • Always try passwords: for both fast and slow formats. Use this only if you know your RAR archives are small or you have plenty of patience.

Add all entered passwords to this list
Whenever you successfully type a new archive password, BetterZip silently adds it to the vault. Saves a trip back here, at the cost of cluttering the list with one-off passwords.

The Password List

Each row is a stored password. Use the + button (or ⌘N) to add one, the – button (or ⌫) to remove the selected row. The gear/action menu next to them offers:

  • Edit Passwords as Text…: opens an editor sheet with every password, one per line. Convenient for pasting in a bulk list from an external password manager, or copying the lot out as a backup.
  • Remove All Passwords: clears the vault contents but leaves the master password and other settings intact.
  • Reset Password Manager: wipes the master password, every stored password, and every setting on this tab. The only way out if you’ve forgotten the master password; everything currently in the vault is unrecoverable afterwards.

Password Suggestions

Whenever BetterZip prompts you to set a new password – on a save preset, in the password panel during a save – it offers strong suggestions in a popup next to the password field. Click a suggestion to copy it into the field; choose Generate New Passwords from the same popup to refresh the list.

Click Password Suggestion Settings… to control how suggestions are generated:

  • Memorable word-based passwords (the default) or Safari-style passwords with letters, digits, and dashes.
  • How many words make up each suggestion (more = stronger but longer).
  • A custom word-list file to draw from instead of BetterZip’s built-in list: useful for non-English passwords or themed lists.