TZ2 to 7Z Converter

How to Convert TZ2 to 7Z Online

1. Upload Your TZ2 File: Drag and drop or click "+ Add Files" to add one or more .tz2 archives. Batch conversion is supported, so you can queue multiple archives at once.
2. Pick Single Archive vs Individual Archives: Under the "Combine?" group, choose Single Archive to merge all uploaded TZ2 contents into one combined .7z, or Individual Archives to produce a separate .7z per uploaded file. Default for multi-file conversions is one .7z per input.
3. Confirm the Output Extension (Optional): The output extension group is preset to 7Z. Conversion repackages the tar contents with 7-Zip's LZMA2 method — there is no separate codec dropdown to change.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared.

Why Convert TZ2 to 7Z?

TZ2 is a single-extension alias for .tar.bz2 — a tar archive compressed with bzip2. The format is common on Linux for source tarballs and package distributions, but Windows and macOS users frequently want a more portable, GUI-friendly container. 7z, introduced in 1999 by Igor Pavlov as the native format of 7-Zip, uses LZMA2 by default and typically achieves a better compression ratio on text, code, and uncompressed binaries than bzip2 — at the cost of higher RAM use during compression.

• Better compression on most workloads — LZMA2 (7z's default) generally outperforms bzip2 on source code, logs, and text-heavy archives. Already-compressed media (JPEG, MP4, MP3) shows little gain in either format.
• Strong AES-256 encryption with optional filename hiding — 7z supports AES-256 with SHA-256 key stretching (2^19 iterations). Bzip2 itself offers no encryption — tar.bz2 users typically wrap files with GPG separately.
• Windows-friendly handling — Native Windows Explorer extracts ZIP only; both .tar.bz2 and .7z need a third-party tool, but 7z is the assumed default for 7-Zip, PeaZip, and NanaZip on Windows.
• Solid archive savings — 7z's "solid" mode treats many small files as one stream, which can dramatically shrink archives full of similar source files versus a per-file approach.
• Single-file output for sharing — Email and chat platforms (Gmail's 25 MB attachment cap, Outlook's 20 MB default cap) treat one .7z as a single attachment, simpler than a two-layer .tar.bz2.
• Long-term archival — Both formats are open and well-documented, but 7z's broader desktop tooling on Windows/macOS makes it a safer bet when handing files to non-Linux recipients.

TZ2 (tar.bz2) vs 7Z — Format Comparison

Compression Mode Quick Guide

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly is a.tz2 file, and is it different from.tar.bz2 or.tbz2?

.tz2 is a single-extension alias for .tar.bz2 — a tar archive compressed with bzip2. The aliases .tz2, .tbz2, .tbz, and .tb2 all denote the same underlying file: a bzip2-compressed tar. Tools like 7-Zip, PeaZip, and The Unarchiver treat them identically. Some legacy Windows filesystems and FTP setups preferred a 3-character extension, which is why .tz2 exists alongside the longer .tar.bz2.

Will I get a smaller file by converting from TZ2 to 7Z?

Often yes, but not always. LZMA2 (7z's default) usually produces a smaller archive than bzip2 on text, source code, executables, and structured data. On already-compressed content (JPEG, PNG, MP4, MP3, ZIP), neither format can recompress much, so the savings are minimal. Re-compressing a tarball through this tool means decompressing the bzip2 layer, then re-encoding with LZMA2 — your gain depends entirely on the contents of the original tar.

Does the conversion preserve Unix file permissions and symlinks from the tar?

Yes. The tar metadata inside the .tar.bz2 (permissions, ownership, symbolic links, timestamps) is preserved when the contents are repackaged into the 7z archive. When you extract the resulting .7z on Linux or macOS with 7z x or 7zz x, the original POSIX attributes are restored. On Windows, file modes are stored but only the read-only bit and timestamps map to NTFS.

Can I add a password or encryption during the conversion?

The output extension on this page is set to 7Z without a separate encryption toggle. If you need AES-256 password protection, run the converted .7z through 7-Zip locally with the "Encrypt file names" option, or use the dedicated 7Z to 7Z tool which exposes the password fields when available. Bzip2 itself has no built-in encryption, so the original .tz2 never carried a password to begin with.

Will my files be uploaded to a server?

Yes — TZ2 to 7Z conversion is server-backed because bzip2 decompression and 7z (LZMA2) compression are CPU-intensive and impractical to run reliably in-browser for large archives. Files are processed on isolated workers, are not shared with third parties, and are deleted automatically after the conversion completes. No sign-up is required.

Why is the conversion sometimes slow?

Both endpoints of this conversion are slow algorithms by design. Bzip2 has to fully decompress the source (CPU-bound), then LZMA2 has to compress the data — and LZMA2 at the default level can take 5-10x longer than gzip for the same input. A 100 MB source archive of mixed text and binaries typically takes a minute or two of wall time. Plan accordingly for multi-gigabyte tarballs.

What about the reverse direction — can I go from 7Z back to TZ2?

Yes. Use the 7Z to TZ2 tool to convert the other way. If you'd rather use the longer extension, 7Z to tar.bz2 is the same conversion under a different output filename.

Are there alternatives to 7Z if I just want better compatibility?

If your priority is sending the archive to someone on Windows without 7-Zip installed, .zip opens natively in Windows Explorer, macOS Finder, and most Linux file managers — try tar.bz2 to ZIP instead. If you're staying on Linux and want a faster modern alternative to bzip2, tar.bz2 to tar.xz gets you LZMA2 inside a tar wrapper rather than a 7z container.

What programs open the resulting.7z file?

On Windows: 7-Zip, PeaZip, NanaZip, and WinRAR all open .7z natively. On macOS: The Unarchiver, Keka, and BetterZip handle 7z without issues. On Linux: p7zip (the 7z / 7zz command-line tool) and most desktop archive managers (GNOME Files, Ark, Nautilus with extensions) support 7z extraction.