QUESTIONS
Answers to the most common questions. Something else? Write to appsfilipepereira@gmail.com (see support).
THE BASICS
WHAT IS FORMAT FIGHTER?
A menu bar app that converts files on your Mac: video, sound, pictures, documents, subtitles and archives. Each conversion is a little arcade game: the formats are crystals, and you fire at the one you want.
WHERE IS THE APP?
It has no Dock icon. Look for the ship in the menu bar, at the top of the screen. Click the ship to open the window; right-click it for the menu (settings, HI-SCORE, Restore Purchases…, About Quality…, Licenses… and Quit).
DOES IT SEND MY FILES ANYWHERE?
No. Every conversion happens on your Mac, also without the internet. There are no accounts, no servers and no analytics. See the privacy policy.
WHICH Mac DO I NEED?
A Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later) and macOS 14 Sonoma or later.
CONVERTING
HOW DO I CONVERT A FILE?
Click the ship, drop your files on the window (or click CHOOSE FILES), then click a crystal. You can also right-click files in the Finder and choose Convert with Format Fighter (see Finder menu). When it's done, the new file is shown in the Finder.
CAN I CONVERT SEVERAL FILES AT ONCE?
Yes. Choose or drop them together: each one is converted to the format you pick. Several files into ZIP make a single Archive.zip.
WHERE ARE THE NEW FILES SAVED?
Next to the originals. To use one folder for everything, right-click the ship and choose Save To › Choose Folder…. If a file with the same name already exists, the new one gets a number (for example clip 2.mp4): nothing is ever replaced.
THE APP ASKS FOR A FOLDER. WHY?
macOS keeps App Store apps in a sandbox. To save files next to the originals, the app needs your permission once for a folder (for example, your home folder). macOS remembers it.
WHY IS A CRYSTAL GREY?
That format can't be made from this file without breaking the app's quality rules, or the file is already in that format. Hold the pointer over the crystal: the screen says why.
WHY IS THERE ONLY ZIP?
Any file can go into a ZIP. When ZIP is the only crystal, the screen says why there are no others (for example, a file type the app doesn't convert, or files of different kinds chosen together).
WHICH FORMATS ARE THERE?
Video: MP4 (H.264, HEVC), MOV (including ProRes 422 and ProRes Proxy), MKV, AVI, WMV, WebM, GIF and a still frame. Sound: MP3, M4A (AAC), ALAC, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, OGG and Opus, also the sound of a video. Pictures: JPEG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, AVIF, TIFF, BMP, GIF and PDF (SVG can be read). Documents: PDF, TXT and DOCX; PDF pages to JPEG or PNG. Subtitles: SRT and VTT. Archives: ZIP, TAR, GZIP, and RAR (extract only).
QUALITY
WILL MY FILES LOSE QUALITY?
No visible or audible loss: the same resolution, frame rate, colour depth and sound. When the video and sound already fit the new format, they are only moved into the new file, without encoding them again. Right-click the ship and choose About Quality… for every rule in plain words.
WHY IS MY WebM, AVI OR WMV SO BIG?
These formats are set to their finest quality, so that nothing visible is lost. The file can be several times bigger than the original.
WHAT ABOUT GIF?
GIF is an old format: 256 colours at most. A video becomes a GIF of up to 30 seconds, 10 frames a second and 480 pixels.
Finder MENU
HOW DO I TURN ON THE Finder MENU?
macOS keeps it off until you turn it on, once. Right-click the ship and choose Finder Menu…: the screen shows the steps for your Mac and an OPEN SETTINGS button.
On macOS 15.2 or later: in System Settings › General › Login Items & Extensions, under Extensions, click the (i) next to File Providers, turn on Format Fighter and click Done.
On macOS 14: in System Settings › Privacy & Security › Extensions, click Added Extensions and tick Finder under Format Fighter.
THE OPTION DOESN'T APPEAR.
It appears when the selection has files (not only folders). Check that the Finder Menu… screen says ON. macOS 15.0 and 15.1 have no switch for it: update macOS to 15.2 or later.
CLEAN
WHAT DOES CLEAN DO?
It saves a copy in the same format without the metadata: location, camera, dates, author, software, comments, titles and cover art. The picture, video or sound is copied as it is, never encoded again. The copy is called name clean (for example photo clean.jpg); the original stays as it was.
HOW DO I KNOW WHAT IT REMOVES?
Point at the CLEAN crystal: the screen lists what the file has, for example WILL REMOVE: LOCATION · iPhone 15 Pro Max · DATE. After DONE!, it says what was removed.
WHAT STAYS?
Only what changes how the file looks or plays: orientation, colour profile, HDR, timecode, language and loudness. In PDF files, comments stay without the name of who wrote them.
WHICH FILES CAN BE CLEANED?
Photos (JPEG, PNG, HEIC, AVIF, WebP, TIFF), videos (MOV, MP4, M4V, MKV, WebM, AVI, WMV), sound (MP3, M4A, AAC, WAV, AIFF, FLAC, OGG, Opus) and PDF. Not GIF, BMP, SVG or encrypted PDF files: the screen says why.
ARCHIVES
HOW DO I EXTRACT A ZIP OR RAR?
Choose it and click EXTRACT. A single item comes out next to the archive; several go into a folder with the archive's name. Nothing is ever written outside that folder.
MY ZIP HAS A PASSWORD.
The screen asks for it. The password is kept only in memory while the files are on the screen, and is never saved. RAR files with a password can't be opened.
FREE FILES AND PURCHASE
HOW MANY FILES ARE FREE?
10. Each converted file counts 1; a ZIP of several files counts 1; extracting an archive counts 1. A conversion that fails doesn't count. The counter FILES n/10 is always at the top of the window.
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER 10?
The INSERT COIN screen offers one purchase for unlimited files, with the price in your country's currency. It's a one-time purchase: no subscription. After it, the counter says FREE PLAY.
I BOUGHT IT ON ANOTHER Mac.
Right-click the ship and choose Restore Purchases…, or use RESTORE PURCHASES on the INSERT COIN screen, with the same Apple Account. Family Sharing works too.
EXTRAS
WHAT IS THE HI-SCORE?
Points for every file you convert, with bonuses for big files, batches and new formats, and ranks from CADET to LEGEND. Right-click the ship and choose HI-SCORE…. It's saved only on your Mac.
WHAT IS CHARGE SHOT?
An optional gesture, off at first: while dragging files anywhere, hold the mouse still for a second and the window opens under the pointer. Turn it on with Charge Shot in the ship's menu.
HOW DO I TURN OFF THE SOUND?
Right-click the ship and untick Sound. With Reduce motion on (System Settings › Accessibility › Display), the animations are calmer.
CAN IT OPEN WHEN I LOG IN?
Yes: right-click the ship and tick Open at Login.