StuffIt Deluxe 9.0: Problems expanding older/larger .sit files

Yesterday we covered a report by Randy Smith that StuffIt Deluxe 9 (for OS X) is at times unable to "unstuff" StuffIt archives created using StuffIt Deluxe for OS 9. When attempting to unstuff these archives, StuffIt Deluxe 9 just freezes. We've received quite a few confirmations of this behavior (or at least similar behavior), although Allume (the makers of StuffIt) state that they haven't been able to reproduce the issue in-house.

Randy later sent a follow-up: "I used my [Windows] PC running Stuffit Deluxe 8 to expand the files. Turns out the archive was damaged. However the PC version deals with the damage and reports it while version 9 on the Mac just gives up and hangs. I tried 3 different 400 MB archives and the PC version, while finding errors, handled them all. The new Mac version just hangs. I have not run into this problem using version 8 on the Mac."

According to reader Bret Laskarzewski, StuffIt Expander 9 can usually expand these older files properly, even when StuffIt Deluxe 9 cannot:

"I also experienced problems expanding older archives from within Stuffit Deluxe 9.0. I would get errors about corrupt archives or files that were incomplete as well as the symptoms Randy described. The workaround that worked for me was to use Stuffit Expander 9 to completely expand the older archive and then use Stuffit Deluxe or DropStuff 9 to re-archive them in the new format."

However, reader Nicolas Solberg reports that the issue isn't limited to archives created in OS 9, although the size of the archive does appear to be a contributing factor:

"I too have encountered the same problem on some .sit files over 80 megs. Strangely, these aren't old stuffit archives created using an older version of Stuffit, but created with Stuffit 9 itself. Perhaps there's a conflicting legacy file from some old stuffit install, or a plist corruption, but I haven't yet found the problem. Of course I'm nervous to create any new .sit archives, since they may fail or even be corrupted and I have no way of opening them."

Finally, Scott Lahteine describes a similar -- though possibly unrelated -- issue:

"I too have had problems with older Stuffit archives. I received a SITX file created by Stuffit 7. Stuffit Expander 9 presented some messages about hidden temporary folders it was making and removing during the expansion, which seemed a little odd, and then crashed without completing the expansion. Every attempt to open the archive yielded exactly the same results."

Allume has promised to keep MacFixIt updated with any developments as they investigate this issue.

Are you experiencing similar issues with StuffIt Deluxe 9? Drop us an email at Late-breakers@macfixit.com.

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