Thunar - Failed to create archive, no suitable archive manager found

xubuntu xfce archive

14,902

Solution 1

This seems to be a Thunar/XFCE specific issue, I managed to track the problem which is related to the menu editor and how apps are linked to it, in particular "File-Roller". Apparently when you edit (change the icon or name) of the second "Archive Manager" launcher in the "Menu Editor" and save it, for some odd reason it dissociates "File-Roller" from the said launcher and it won't work anymore.

In order to fix it, simply delete the second "Archive Manager" launcher and everything is back to normal. Once deleted, you should be able to create archives again from the right click context menu. See images for further clarification:

Solution 2

I had the same problem, but only one .desktop file (menu entry in LinuxScientist's answer). My solution was in https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=31871

Verify that /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache contains entires to file-roller, like:
application/x-archive=gnome-file-roller.desktop;org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop;
sudo update-desktop-database to "(re)Build cache database of MIME types handled by desktop files"
thunar -q to quit, then restart Thunar (optional?)

Somehow I ran into the same problem again, this time it was an "extra" org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop file in my home's ~/.local/share/applications/ folder, in addition to the "original" /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop.

First I compared the two files to make sure they were essentially identical

diff -s ~/.local/share/applications/org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop |less

then I removed ~/.local/share/applications/org.gnome.FileRoller.desktop and immediately thunar was creating archives again.

_{(This might be the same root problem as the other answer by LinuxScientist, but they didn't say where the duplicate file was, and with this answer I don't rely on the GUI Menu Editor)}

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LinuxScientist

As a scientist I have come to appreciate Linux over the years and in my humble opinion Linux gives me the freedom that I never had and never will have with any proprietary operating system. I can modify Linux and even distribute my modifications, scientific experiments and research data with my colleagues and vise versa. It gives science an unprecedented level of control and independence and allows us to observe new properties, devise new methods which opens the door to remarkable scientific discoveries and progress. I remember when I was working at the European Southern Observatory before they made the switch to Linux. We had to wait for weeks and months for Microsoft programmers or third party developers to program our observation, testing or simulation software. What was even worse, if they made a mistake and didn't implement the proper scientific data, we had to wait even longer for them to fix it. That all change at the end of the 90s when Linux became our standard scientific computing platform at work. For me, as a professional but also home user, there's no other operating system in the world that can provide the same stability, flexibility and customizability as Linux. We scientists freely share our discoveries to improve the quality of life and create a more beneficial environment, for not just our species but all species on our planet and beyond. We put the knowledge at no cost in your hands, so that you can learn how to make more informed decisions about everyday situations and your life in general. Linux in many ways does the same thing for the computing world. It unites people across the globe to work for a better tomorrow. It certainly has contributed a lot to science in terms of technology, it powers our desktops, space probes, space telescopes, mars rovers, communication systems and much more. LS

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

LinuxScientist over 1 year

Ever since I installed Xubuntu 16.04.2 I have this weird bug, whenever I try to create an archive from the right-click menu in Thunar I get the following error message:"Failed to create archive. No suitable archive manager found.". When I use the Extract Here option, it works fine, file-roller launches and extracts the archive without a hitch. It seems like file-roller is not linked to the Create Archive in the right click menu of Thunar.

I googled my problem and found some old forum posts with some workarounds but none of them seem to work anymore, at least for me.

I tried:

thunar-archive-plugin not working

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=31871

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=215241

Does anyone know how to re-associate file-roller to the Create Archive right click menu launcher? Or how I can just simply fix it?
- jbrock about 7 years
  
  Are you sure thunar-archive-plugin is installed? Perhaps it got uninstalled but happened to stay there in the Thunar right-click menu.
- LinuxScientist about 7 years
  
  Thank you for your help, it's much appreciated! Yes, I have the thunar-archive-plugin installed, it seems like I have figured out what the problem was.