⚠️ Pre-1.0 — not fully tested.
Back up your SD card before using any destructive or bulk operations.

• Overview
• Features
• FAT32 Large-File Handling
• Controls
• Build Instructions
• Runtime File Layout
• Applet Mode Warning
• Known Limitations & Roadmap
• Safety Scope
• License

Switch 7zip is a homebrew file manager and archive utility for the Nintendo Switch, designed around the realities of the HAC-001 handheld screen and FAT32 SD cards.

It lets you browse your SD card, inspect and selectively extract archives, compress files to ZIP, and gracefully handle the FAT32 4 GiB file-size ceiling — all through a native SDL2 interface built for the Switch's physical controls.

Not affiliated with Nintendo, 7-Zip, Igor Pavlov, libarchive, or devkitPro.
No 7-Zip binaries or LZMA SDK code are included or redistributed.

• SD card browser with sorting, filtering, and dual-pane helpers
• File copy, move, rename, new folder and file creation
• Trash and restore workflow
• Bookmarks and recent folders

• Extraction via libarchive
• Archive preview and selective extraction
• ZIP compression
• Multipart archive diagnostics

• Free-space preflight before large operations
• FAT32 4 GiB guard
• Three configurable oversized-file modes (see below)

• Text / log / config viewer with small inline editor
• Hex viewer
• PNG / JPG / BMP image viewer (requires switch-sdl2_image)

• Operation logs: latest.log and failed_operation.txt
• One-tap diagnostic bundle export
• Applet Mode warning for safer large-archive work

FAT32 cannot store a single file larger than 4 GiB − 1 byte. Switch 7zip exposes three modes to handle oversized files during extraction:

SPLIT and CONCAT are not triggered by archive size alone. They are only used when an individual file inside the archive is larger than FAT32 allows.

To enable one of these modes:

1. Launch Switch 7zip.
2. Press + to open the action menu.
3. Open Settings.
4. Find the FAT32 oversized-file handling option.
5. Change the mode from BLOCK to SPLIT or CONCAT.
6. Exit Settings.
7. Select the archive.
8. Press X to extract.

Use SPLIT when you only need to store or move the oversized output on FAT32. Use CONCAT only when another Switch tool expects Horizon OS concatenated-file folders.

bigfile.bin.split/
  0000.part
  0001.part
  0002.part

bigfile.bin/
  00
  01
  02

Install devkitPro and the required Switch portlibs:

sudo dkp-pacman -Syu
sudo dkp-pacman -S switch-dev switch-libarchive switch-sdl2 switch-sdl2_image

make clean && make

This produces Switch7zip.nro. Copy it to your Switch:

sdmc:/switch/Switch7zip/Switch7zip.nro

All user data lives under sdmc:/switch/Switch7zip/:

sdmc:/switch/Switch7zip/
├── Switch7zip.nro
├── config.ini
├── logs/
│   ├── latest.log
│   ├── failed_operation.txt
│   └── diagnostic_bundle.txt
└── .trash/

Running homebrew in Applet Mode gives the app less available memory. Long operations on large archives may fail partway through as a result.

For large-archive work, launch Switch 7zip in full-memory (title-override) mode. The app will warn you if Applet Mode is detected, but choosing the right launch method is your responsibility.

This section is intentionally candid. Here is what still needs work before 1.0:

ui.c        — rendering and layout
input.c     — controller handling
state.c     — application state
overlays.c  — modals and popups
actions.c   — file and archive operations
settings.c  — config persistence

Switch 7zip does not include, require, or enable:

• Nintendo SDK or proprietary files
• Firmware or encryption keys
• Copyrighted game files
• DRM bypass material
• Piracy workflows of any kind

It is a file and archive utility for user-owned content on a homebrew-enabled Switch.

MIT