RAR to TB2 Converter

Convert RAR to TB2 Online

Turn a proprietary RarLab .rar archive into a .tb2 file — a tar archive compressed with bzip2, written with the short single-extension name instead of the longer .tar.bz2. The conversion is a lossless container swap: your RAR is fully extracted and its files are repacked into a tar bundle, then re-compressed with bzip2, so the contents are preserved byte-for-byte while Unix paths, permissions, and ownership survive the move. The .tb2 you get is the same kind of file as .tar.bz2 or .tbz2, just spelled with the legacy short extension some older DOS and Windows archivers expected.

RAR Format at a Glance

TB2 (.tar.bz2) Format at a Glance

.tb2 vs Other bzip2-Tarball Extensions

The .tb2, .tbz2, .tz2, and .tar.bz2 extensions all name the exact same container — a tar archive run through bzip2. They differ only in spelling and which tools historically expected them.

How bzip2 Compares to gzip and xz

bzip2 layers run-length encoding, the Burrows-Wheeler transform, move-to-front, and Huffman coding to squeeze tarballs smaller than gzip's Deflate — typically 10-15% smaller on text-heavy data — at the cost of being noticeably slower and more CPU-intensive. The xz (LZMA) compressor usually packs tighter still and decompresses faster, which is why many Linux projects moved their downloads from .tar.bz2 to .tar.xz. If you want that smaller output, convert RAR to TAR.XZ instead. Note that bzip2 does not re-shrink already-compressed data: a RAR full of JPEG, MP4, MP3, or PDF files repacks to a .tb2 of roughly the same size, because those payloads are already compressed.

How to Convert RAR to TB2

1. Upload Your RAR File: Drag and drop your .rar archive onto the page, or click "+ Add Files" to pick it from your computer, Google Drive, or Dropbox. You can queue several archives at once.
2. Choose Single Archive or Individual Archives: Under the "Combine?" control, keep "Single Archive" to pack everything into one .tb2, or pick "Individual Archives" to get a separate .tb2 per input file.
3. Confirm the Output Format: TB2 is preselected as the output extension — no quality slider is needed, because this is a lossless repack rather than a re-encode. The defaults produce a standard bzip2 tarball any tar build can read.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and save your .tb2 file. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours. No sign-up, no watermark.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is .tb2 the same as .tar.bz2?

Yes. .tb2 is a shorter spelling of .tar.bz2 — both hold a tar archive compressed with bzip2, and the bytes are identical. Only the filename extension differs. Some older DOS and Windows archivers preferred the short 8.3-style .tb2 name because they could not handle the double .tar.bz2 extension. The .tbz2 and .tz2 spellings are the same format again.

How do I open a .tb2 file after converting?

On Linux or macOS, run tar -xjf archive.tb2 in a terminal; the j flag tells tar to decompress bzip2 (modern tar also auto-detects it, so tar -xf usually works too). On Windows, 7-Zip and PeaZip both recognize .tb2. If a tool refuses the file because of the extension, rename it to archive.tar.bz2 — the contents do not change. If you would rather not install anything, our TB2 extractor unpacks it online.

Does converting RAR to TB2 lose any files or quality?

No. This is a lossless container swap. The RAR is fully extracted and its files are repacked into a bzip2 tarball, so every byte of every file is preserved. On Unix-origin archives, file paths, permissions, ownership, and symlinks carry through as well — metadata that RAR handling can drop on Linux and macOS but that tar keeps intact.

Will a .tb2 file be smaller than the original RAR?

Not necessarily. RAR and bzip2 use different algorithms, so the result depends entirely on your data. bzip2 usually beats gzip on text and source code but is not guaranteed to beat RAR's proprietary compression. In our testing, repacking a mixed source-code RAR to .tb2 produced an archive within a few percent of the RAR's size, while a RAR of JPEGs and MP4s came out essentially the same size — already-compressed media has nothing left to squeeze. Convert for portability on Unix systems, not for guaranteed size savings.

Can I convert a password-protected or multi-part RAR to TB2?

Not currently. Encrypted RAR archives (AES-128 in RAR4, AES-256 in RAR5) and multi-volume sets — .part1.rar, .part2.rar, … or the legacy .rar/.r00/.r01 naming — are not supported here, so the conversion needs a single, unencrypted .rar. For those cases, extract locally with 7-Zip or WinRAR on Windows (or The Unarchiver on Mac), then re-pack the folder as a tarball.

Why convert RAR to TB2 instead of ZIP?

Choose .tb2 when the archive is headed into a Unix or Linux toolchain: tar preserves file permissions, ownership, and symlinks, and bzip2 is open and patent-free, so any tar install unpacks it with no third-party software. Choose ZIP instead when you are handing the file to a Windows, macOS, or mobile recipient — every desktop and phone OS opens ZIP natively with a double-click, which .tb2 cannot claim. If wide compatibility matters more than Unix metadata, convert RAR to ZIP is the safer pick.

Which bzip2 extension should my file use — .tb2, .tbz2, or .tar.bz2?

Any of them; they are interchangeable, and you can rename between them freely without touching the contents. Use .tar.bz2 when you want the format to be self-evident to a human, and .tb2 or .tbz2 when a tool or filesystem dislikes the double extension. A handful of strict programs match on the exact suffix, so if one refuses your file, renaming to .tar.bz2 is the quickest fix.

Are my files private when I convert them here?

Yes. Files are uploaded over an encrypted (TLS) connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours. There is no sign-up, no watermark, and your archives are never shared or made public. If an archive holds something truly sensitive, the offline route — packing a tarball with tar -cjf on your own machine — keeps it off the network entirely.